Kilifi County Government is set to conduct mass burial of 443 unclaimed Shakahola remains by December this year, with relatives of victims being urged to come forward and identify their loved ones before the legal deadlines lapse.
According to the Kilifi County Executive Committee (CEC) Peter Mwarogo, the bodies have been in the county morgue since 2023 when the incident was unearthed, and 443 bodies have since been embalmed at the county base.
Mwarogo, intimated that investigators and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has given them the green light to proceed with the disposal.
The development unfolded during a joint oversight visit to Malindi Sub-County Hospital by the Senate County Public Investments and Special Funds Committee and the Health Committee, where senators raised concerns over the prolonged stay of the remains at the facility and the effectiveness of efforts to trace families.
Mwarogo said the county was keen to ensure that the remains were interred in a manner that would allow for future identification should relatives later come forward.
“We have to inter them in a way that if somebody comes later and wants to identify their relative, we are able to do that,” he said.
The CEC said 14 bodies had so far been identified by relatives, but hundreds remained unclaimed.
He said the county had already identified land near Shakahola where the remains would eventually be interred.
The process, however, will first have to go through the legal requirements governing the disposal of unclaimed bodies.
According to Mwarogo the Gazette notice would give families 21 days to come forward and claim the remains. After the expiry of the notice, the county would approach the court for orders allowing it to proceed with the interment.
He said the county was working closely with the DCI to ensure that the process did not compromise ongoing identification efforts.
The county is also expected to publicise the notice through television, newspapers, radio and social media to reach families who may still be searching for relatives missing since the Shakahola tragedy.
The Senate’s 2023 Ad Hoc Committee on Shakahola recorded that 428 bodies had been exhumed and recovered by October 13, 2023, while one suspect had died in custody, bringing the committee’s recorded death toll to 429.
The issue of the unclaimed remains has remained a major concern for Kilifi authorities. In August, Governor Gideon Mung’aro publicly complained about the continued storage of hundreds of Shakahola bodies at Malindi Sub-County Hospital and the costs associated with preserving them.
Mwarogo said the county’s immediate priority was to ensure that every reasonable effort was made to reach families before the legal process proceeded.
He said the publicity campaign would therefore be critical in ensuring that relatives who had not yet completed the identification process were given an opportunity to come forward.
The county is now preparing for the next stage of the process, with officials expected to proceed to court after the 21-day Gazette notice period expires.
Mwarogo said the ultimate objective was to give the remains a dignified burial while preserving the possibility of identification should relatives emerge in future.
The Shakahola investigation began in 2023 after reports of deaths and missing persons linked to the Good News International Church led by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie triggered a major police operation in the forest.
The large-scale exhumations in the Shakahola area led to the recovery of hundreds of bodies, triggering a forensic identification process aimed at helping families establish the fate of missing relatives.
Meanwhile, controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie and other suspects linked to the Shakahola starvation cult remain in custody as the case against them continues.
The Shakahola Forest incident, also known as the Shakahola massacre, involved a religious cult in Kenya led by Paul Nthenge Mackenzie, founder of Good News International Ministries, an apocalyptic Christian group. The incident came to public attention in March of 2023 when a concerned man reported to the police that his wife and daughter, who had traveled from Nairobi, Kenya, to join Mackenzie's remote Good News International Ministries in Kilifi County had not returned.
Upon investigating the community, police discovered emaciated people and shallow graves. They rescued fifteen members of the group who revealed that they had been instructed to starve themselves to death to "meet Jesus". Despite the rescue efforts, four of the fifteen followers died before reaching the hospital due to their critical condition.
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