Gov't Suspends Exhumation of Bodies from Shakahola Mass Graves

The government has suspended the ongoing exhumation exercise at Shakahola forest in Malindi, Kilifi County due to bad weather.

While announcing the move on Friday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said the current weather conditions are unsuitable for the exhumation of bodies for judicial purposes. 

"The experts have advised us that the procedure of doing the exhumations for purposes of judicial and court processes involves a lot of sensitivity. The ground must be dry to a certain level so that they are able to conduct the exhumations without interfering with the evidence or further damaging the bodies," he said.

"Therefore we have suspended the exhumations because of the weather and as soon as it dries up a little bit we will resume."

Kindiki also defended the move to bar members of the press and human rights bodies from covering and accessing the exhumation site.

"The process of exhuming the bodies is a court-ordered process; It is done based on certain ethical and professional standards, that's why we cannot allow everybody to take part in the exhumation, or to take images," he said.

"Such images are limited even by international law because they constitute outrageous crimes against human duty. These are the bodies of people's loved ones and kin and so there is a limit even in terms of what security agents can do."

As of Thursday, 109 bodies of people believed to be followers of Pastor Paul Mackenzie’s Good News International Church had been exhumed from the site.

Mackenzie, who is currently in police custody, is accused of manipulating his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus before burying them in shallow graves spread across his 800-acre land in Shakahola.

The televangelist is alleged to have instructed his followers to quit their jobs, drop out of schools, stop feeding on “worldly food”, and not seek medical treatment in hospitals when sick.