Kindiki Issues 4 Clarifications After Suspending Shakahola Exercise

Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki on Saturday, May 20 cleared the air regarding the exhumation of bodies and rescue of survivors of the Shakahola massacre which was allegedly led by Paul Mackenzie.

In a statement, Kindiki noted that the exercise had been suspended for only five days for purposes of logistical arrangements regarding the post-mortem exercise of the bodies recovered from the Shakahola forest.

"Only the search for graves and exhumation of the victims of the Shakahola Massacre has been suspended to allow for logistical arrangements for the postmortem examination of the additional 123 bodies recovered in Phase 2 of the exhumation exercise. 

Interior CS Kithure Kindiki during his visit to Shakahola Forest. /FACEBOOK.KITHURE KINDIKI

"Phase 2 postmortems will commence on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital," he stated in part.

Kindiki confirmed that the search and rescue of the survivors will continue seamlessly and would also cover areas other than Shakahola Forest.

"The search for and rescue of survivors within Shakahola Forest and The Chakama Ranch generally will continue uninterrupted and will be extended into the edges of the neighbouring Tsavo East National Park in the coming days using ground and drone search.

"Grave search and exhumation shall resume at the conclusion of the Phase 2 postmortem exercise," he added.

As of Friday, May 19, 4 more survivors were rescued from Shakahola forest, bringing the total number to 93. At the same time, the total number of bodies exhumed reached 235.

On May 18, the forensics team announced that the exhumations would take a break so that the postmortems of 123 exhumed bodies would be conducted.

President William Ruto on Sunday, May 14 accepted responsibility as the President for letting the incident happen in the first place and asked Kenyans for forgiveness in advance.

"I am asking for forgiveness from the people of Kenya following the Shakahola incident. There was laxity in our Government that unfortunately resulted in the death of many Kenyans. 

"I am taking responsibility that as President this (Shakahola massacre) should not have happened. This kind of thing should have never happened. The promise that I am giving to Kenyans is that we will get to the bottom of this matter," he stated during a joint-media interview with journalists at State House.