Piece by: LINDWE DANFLOW

20 May 2023

• Kindiki said phase 2 of the post-mortem exercise will commence on Wednesday, May 24.

• The post-mortem exercise will be conducted at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital.

Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki has explained why he chose to suspend the exhumation of bodies from the Shakahola forest.

Kindiki on Saturday clarified that only the search for graves and exhumation of the victims of the Shakahola Massacre had been suspended.

"We suspended the exercise to allow for logistical arrangements for the post-mortem examination of the additional 123 bodies recovered in phase 2 of the exhumation exercise," the CS said.

Kindiki said phase 2 of the post-mortem exercise will commence on Wednesday, May 24. The post-mortem exercise will be conducted at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital.

The search for and rescue of survivors within Shakahola Forest and the Chakama Ranch will, however, continue uninterrupted.

"It will also be extended into the edges of the neighbouring Tsavo East National Park in the coming days using ground and drone search," Kindiki said.

He said the grave search and exhumation shall resume after the conclusion of the Phase 2 post-mortem exercise. The CS announced the suspension of the exhumation exercise on Thursday.

From the first post-mortem exercise, it was revealed that four victims of the cultic activities were murdered. The four bodies had strangulation, smothering and blunt object trauma marks.

The report showed that except for six whose cause of death could not be ascertained, the rest died of hunger.

In the first post-mortem exercise, 110 bodies were examined. The total number of exhumed bodied currently stands at 235.