Shakahola victims' families demand preservation of DNA evidence before mass burial

For more than three years, hundreds of families across the country whose kin died in the Shakahola massacre have waited for one thing: to bury their dead.

Now, Kilifi County says that the wait is almost over, with authorities having set December as the deadline for a mass burial of unclaimed bodies.

But for families who lost multiple relatives in the cult killings, the timeline is bringing back fear, not relief. They want one guarantee before any burial happens: that the DNA evidence keeping the door open to future answers will not be buried with the bodies.

Rose Asena has, for the last three years, been pounding the streets of Nairobi and Malindi in a desperate search for answers and justice for her five nieces and nephews, part of the more than 400 people who died in the Shakahola massacre.

Rose says victims' families have learnt of the planned closure to that tragedy through the media.

"This has caused some tension for us. I have written a petition to find out why the government is not communicating to us; the responsible authorities have been silent all through, they have not given us any documents concerning the reports we made about our missing people,” Asena said.

The county government of Kilifi says it will be disposing of the unidentified and unreclaimed bodies by the end of the year, but that plan has not been embraced by all of the families affected by the tragedy.

Matrona Mangoji lost eight family members; her sister, her brother-in-law and their six children.

"We cannot allow this; these are our family members, these are sisters, our brothers, our children who died in that massacre. We wanted to know why they gave those directions, why they wanted a mass grave, and yet we have a lot of questions, unanswered questions,” said Mangoji.

The families say the silence from the government over the processes that have surrounded the handling of the bodies of their loved ones since they were retrieved from Shakahola and preserved at the Malindi mortuary is disturbing.

Today, 443 bodies and body parts remain preserved at the Malindi Sub-County Hospital, and only 14 have so far been positively identified through DNA matching.

Kilifi County now says investigations are complete and has given families 21 days to come forward and identify their relatives before proceeding with the burial.

"The question is what happens after the burial? Should the burial bury our questions also, or is there a communication to tell us, listen before we bury, this is what we have set aside as the results from the DNA that we are going to keep, and this is the custodian of these particular documents,” Asena noted.

Mangoji added, "We want closure, we want answers, we want to know. We are not going to bury our people unless the government answers these questions."

The families say the burial site should be turned into a monument for them to visit in the future as they seek closure to this very painful, tragic period of their lives and start their journey to healing from the impact of one of the most tragic religious-inspired killings in the country.