- Chief government pathologist said since it was a matter under investigation no relative would be charged for the DNA.
- The experts include homicide detectives, DCI, forensic experts, and staff from the Government Chemist.
Image: ALPHONCE GARI
The national government will meet the cost of DNA tests for families looking for their missing relatives among people who died and were buried in Shakahola forest.
Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor said the state would take care of the DNA expenses. So far, 76 bodies out of the 110 that have been exhumed from Shakahola have undergone postmortem.
Oduor said they have retrieved DNA samples from 49 family members who have reported about their missing relatives at Malindi subcounty hospital.
In his third daily briefing, the chief government pathologist said since it was a matter under investigation no relative would be charged for the DNA.
"Being a matter that is under investigation and because of justice I don't think any relative will be charged any cost," he said.
He said by Friday they would be through with the process so as to resume the exhumations in Shakahola to see if they could get more bodies.
On Wednesday, the pathologists did 36 autopsies on the bodies of the Shakahola forest victims as the exercise entered day three.
The experts include homicide detectives, DCI, forensic experts, and staff from the Government Chemist.
“The process is going on seamlessly and it was going along concurrently with the process of taking DNA from the relatives of missing persons,” he said.
Oduor said 22 families turned up for purposes of giving DNA samples.
He said they did 36 postmortems, comprising 15 children and 19 adults, adding that they were unable to ascertain whether one body was of an adult or child.
“The number of males was 17 and females were 19. Many of them were severely decomposed such that 23 were severely decomposed 11 were moderately decomposed, but two were mild meaning that they were not badly decomposed,” he said.
The majority, he said, died because of features of starvation which were 23, while four died as a result of asphyxiation, which means they were deprived of oxygen.
Oduor said they were unable to ascertain the cause of death for seven bodies because of the nature of their decomposition.
He said they found a child with a head injury and an adult with chronic kidney and heart diseases.