More than three years after the shocking discovery of mass graves in Shakahola Forest, hundreds of victims remain unidentified, with Kilifi County now giving families just 21 days to come forward before seeking court approval to bury the unclaimed remains.
The county says 443 bodies and body parts recovered during the Shakahola exhumation exercise are still being held at a temporary morgue at Malindi Sub-County Hospital.
The move raises fresh questions about whether every possible effort has been made to locate families who may still be searching for relatives who disappeared into the sprawling forest.
Kilifi County Executive for Health Peter Mwarogo said the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has completed its investigations involving the remains and given the county the go-ahead to begin the interment process.
“We have embalmed the 443 bodies which are at our base. They have given us the go-ahead for the interment of the bodies,” Mwarogo said.
He spoke on Monday when members of the joint Senate committees on Public Investments and Special Funds and Health visited Malindi Sub-County Hospital.
Only 14 Of 443 Shakahola Remains Identified ¶
The scale of the unresolved identification process is stark.
According to the county, only 14 of the 443 remains currently held at the hospital have been identified by relatives through DNA matching.
That means hundreds of families may still have no confirmed answer about what happened to their loved ones.
The county says some relatives have been traced through the identification process but have declined to collect the remains because of the stigma surrounding the Shakahola tragedy.
Mwarogo said some families were able to establish that their relatives were among the dead but chose not to take possession of the bodies.
“Some people were able to trace their relatives, but they refused to come and take the body because of the stigma that is associated with this whole process,” he said.
The situation makes the county's 21-day deadline particularly significant.
For families who have not followed the developments closely, missed the notice or remain hesitant because of the trauma surrounding the massacre, the deadline could effectively become the final opportunity to claim their relatives.
County Turns To Court Before Burying Unclaimed Bodies ¶
Kilifi County has published a Gazette notice asking relatives to come forward within 21 days.
If no additional claims are made after the deadline, Mwarogo said the county will approach the courts for authority to inter the remaining bodies and body parts.
The county has already identified land near Shakahola Forest where the unclaimed remains could be buried.
Mwarogo said the burial would be conducted in a manner that preserves the possibility of identification in future.
“They have to be disposed of in a way that they can be identified even several years if somebody comes here,” he said.
The DCI is expected to guide the process because records from the DNA matching and identification exercise remain important to ongoing legal proceedings.
This means the planned burial is not intended to erase the forensic trail surrounding the victims.
Instead, the county says it wants to create a permanent burial arrangement while retaining information that could help identify victims years later.
Senators Question Reliance On Gazette Notice ¶
Senators visiting the hospital, however, questioned whether publishing a Gazette notice is enough to reach families still searching for missing relatives.
Elgeyo Marakwet Senator William Kisang argued that many Kenyans are unlikely to see a government notice published in the Gazette.
“Who reads the Gazette notice? We should have put it in the media, on TV and everywhere because I know some people are still tracing their bodies,” Kisang said.
He urged the county to use television, newspapers, and social media to publicise the deadline.
His concern goes to the heart of the problem.
The Shakahola tragedy involved people from different parts of Kenya, meaning relatives looking for victims may not necessarily be following Kilifi County government notices.
A broader publicity campaign could therefore become critical in ensuring families are not locked out of the identification process simply because they never saw the Gazette notice.
The county's own admission that some families have been traced but have refused to collect remains because of stigma also suggests that identification is not purely a forensic problem.
It is also a deeply emotional and social issue.
443 Remains Include Bodies and Body Parts ¶
The 443 remains are not all complete bodies. Mwarogo said some are full bodies while others are body parts recovered during the difficult exhumation exercise.
“Some are full bodies and others are body parts because by the time the exhumation was being done, some had been eaten by wild animals,” he said.
The condition of some remains has made identification even more difficult, increasing the importance of DNA analysis and proper preservation of forensic records.
The remains were stored in a container at Malindi Sub-County Hospital after being released from investigators' custody following completion of the forensic investigations.
But the arrangement was never intended to become a permanent solution.
Hospital Mortuary Also Under Pressure ¶
Kilifi County says it wants the Shakahola remains dealt with by December, partly because the temporary storage facility is occupying space that the hospital needs.
The Shakahola remains are being stored separately from the hospital's ordinary mortuary.
That facility itself is operating close to capacity.
The hospital's conventional mortuary has space for 25 bodies but currently holds 22.
To address the pressure, the county is constructing a new mortuary behind the hospital.
Mwarogo said construction of the new facility was about 90 percent complete and is expected to be operational in the coming months.
The facility will allow the county to relocate mortuary services away from the front of the hospital.
Shakahola Tragedy Still Leaves Families Without Answers ¶
The planned interment comes more than three years after mass graves were discovered in Shakahola Forest, exposing the deaths of hundreds of suspected followers of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie.
The tragedy triggered a massive investigation, exhumation exercise and national debate over religious extremism, state oversight and the protection of vulnerable citizens.
Yet the continued presence of hundreds of unidentified remains shows that the tragedy is far from resolved for many families.
For those still searching, the next 21 days could be crucial.
The county intends to proceed with burial if the remains remain unclaimed, but the Senate intervention has highlighted a critical question: whether every family that deserves the chance to identify a loved one has actually been reached before that final step is taken.
