Pathologists conducting autopsy on the 110 bodies retrieved from Shakahola forest managed to examine remains of 30 victims on Tuesday and 27 DNA analysis for families whose relatives are missing.
This brings the total number of postmortems conducted so far to 40 since the exercise started on Monday.
The exercise if being conducted by pathologists, DCI, Homicide Unit Detectives, government Chemist officials and forensic experts led by Government Chief pathologist Johansen Oduor.
Oduor said in the daily briefing at the Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary where the exercise is being carried out that Tuesday's process was fast because it started very early in the morning as opposed to the first day when they experienced some hitches.
“So, with that we were able to do about 30 postmortems and I will read for you the statistics for the postmortems," he said.
Oduor said of the 30 postmortems, eight were male while 22 were female comprising 15 adults and nine children.
He said the gender of six other adults could not be conclusively be determined because of the level of decomposition of their bodies.
The pathologist said most of the bodies were badly decomposed with an exception of a few which were moderately decomposed.
On the cause of death, Oduor said they established that most of them died because of starvation.
“Twenty of the autopsies we did had features of starvation, there were six in which we were unable to ascertain the cause of death because of the level of decompositions so it was very difficult for us to ascertain what caused their deaths because they were very badly decomposed,” he said.
He said one of them, a child, had trauma of the head while three of them had asphyxiation, a sign that they were denied oxygen.
Out of the three, he said they could see clearly that one had marks on the neck of someone who had been strangled with breaking of some muscles, and some bones in the neck.
“So, we are very certain that this person who was a child also was actually strangulated,” he said.
Oduor said two others had undergone smothering which is a process whereby someone blocks a person’s nose and mouth so that he or she is unable to breathe until death.
He said 27 relatives gave DNA samples for processing to help in identifying their relatives who may have died.
Oduor said the child who was strangled was a female aged around 11 years while the two who were smothered were adults, a male and a female.
He said they expect to conduct another 30 postmortems on Wednesday and complete the process by Thursday.
“By Thursday we might be able to do what we are doing here so that we move back to the scene when things are good, we resume the exhumation process,” he said.
When asked about the concern raised by human rights organisations over being denied access to witness the exercise, Oduor said they are not needed there as they could be traumatised.
The deaths at the Shakahola Forest have been attributed to Pastor Paul Nthenge Mackenzie's radical apocalyptic teachings.
He is believed to have persuaded followers at his Good News International Church to starve to death in the hope of ascending to heaven.
