Kilifi Governor Gideon Mung’aro has expressed disappointment over the storage of bodies exhumed from the Shakahola cult crime scene saying they were delaying the implementation of county programs.
Mung’aro said that the county government had plans to relocate the Malindi Sub County Hospital Funeral home to a new site away from the entrance of the Malindi Sub County Hospital.
He said this during the burial of prominent Mijikenda traditional songwriter and singer Masha Iha Thoya in Malindi town, Kilifi County where he challenged Gender and Culture Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa who was present to talk to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki to move the bodies to a national government facility.
At least 400 bodies exhumed from Shakhola after the arrest of controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie have been preserved at the County morgue facility since April 2023 a move that forced the County leadership to react.
“That morgue will be demolished but we are being distracted and held back by the Shakahola bodies and CS Kindiki should come for the bodies so that we get our place back for development.
Ms Jacinta Mbeyu from the Malindi Community Human Rights Center challenged the government to release identified bodies to family members who have been waiting for more than a year after donating their DNA samples.
“We have families who have camped in Malindi since April last year and DNA samples were taken but the results are not forthcoming for many families, the government should release the bodies to the families so that they can have peace,” she said.
Mathias Shipeta from Haki Afrika faulted the government for prosecuting would-be witnesses in the Shakahola tragedy adding that many people who were rescued in Shakahola ought to be witnesses and they should not be charged.
“There are many people we rescued from the 500-acre Makenzie land and we believed they would be witnesses against Makenzie they are victims after being forced to fast to death but unfortunately, they have been charged alongside Makenzie and this may deny victims justice since the state might fail to narrow in evidence to fix Makenzie,” he said adding that their continued victimization in prison may harden them to Makenzie’s advantage.
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