Shakahola: Autopsy Reveals Seven Children Died from Starvation, Two from Lack of Oxygen

Seven children whose bodies were exhumed from shallow graves in Shakahola, Kilifi County, died from starvation, an autopsy has revealed.

The postmortem examinations conducted at Malindi Sub-County Hospital on Monday further determined that two other children died from a lack of oxygen.

Speaking to the media, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said pathologists could not establish the cause of death of one adult as the body had stayed in the grave for a while.

At the centre of the Shakahola massacre is Pastor Paul Mackenzie of Good News International Church who is accused of leading a religious cult and ordering his followers to fast to death in order to meet Jesus before burying them in shallow graves spread across his 800-acre land in Shakahola near Malindi.

The preacher remains in police custody as investigations continue, with Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki indicating that he could be charged with terrorism and genocide.

Last week, Kindiki declared the entire 20,000-hectar Chakama Ranch where the Shakahola forest is located a disturbed area and an operation zone. He also imposed a 30-day dusk-to-dawn curfew in the area which runs from 1800hrs in the evening up to and until 0600hrs daily.

The exhumation exercise was suspended on Friday due to heavy rainfall impounding the area, with the death toll standing at 110 at the time the suspension was announced.

Speaking ahead of the start of the postmortem examinations for the victims, Kindiki said experts are seeking to establish whether there was organ harvest on the deceased.

“If any of our people have their organs missing we will tell the world. There is nothing we are hiding. That is the truth,” Kindiki said at the hospital.