Shakahola tragedy: Rescued follower dies at Malindi hospital

Shakahola's exhumation of bodies was suspended to pave the way for the autopsies.

In Summary
  • Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor while giving the daily briefing on the progress of ongoing postmortem said the man died after being admitted at the Malindi hospital.
  • Oduor said a postmortem done on his body showed he had died of starvation.
Detectives carry bodies exhumed from the Shakahola forest believed to have died of starvation so as to meet their creator
Detectives carry bodies exhumed from the Shakahola forest believed to have died of starvation so as to meet their creator
Image: ALPHONCE GARI

A follower of the controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie died at the Malindi Sub County Hospital moments after being rescued from Shakahola forest.

So far the death toll of the cultic teachings has reached 243.

Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor while giving the daily briefing on the progress of ongoing postmortem said the man died after being admitted at the Malindi hospital.

Oduor said a postmortem done on his body showed he had died of starvation.

"The victim had been rescued from Shakahola forest where the search and rescue operation is still going on" he said.

Shakahola's exhumation of bodies was suspended to pave the way for the autopsies.

The pathologist also revealed three of the bodies examined on Tuesday had some injuries indicating that they might have been murdered.

"In addition to showing features of starvation, one of the bodies had features of strangulation, another had a head injury while the other had blunt trauma on the legs," he said.

Oduor said blunt trauma which is also called penetrating trauma or blunt force is an injury of the body by forceful impact

The chief pathologist said on Tuesday they conducted postmortem for 36 bodies including the one who died in hospital.

Oduor who was accompanied by the Director of the Homicide Unit at the DCI said 18 were male while 17 were female.

He said they could not determine the sex or gender of one body as it was severely decomposed.

"There was a total of 23 adults and ten children but the ages of three could not be determined," he said.

Oduor said one of the persons they did a postmortem on was a fresh body because he died Monday night after being rescued from the forest.

He said the man was very dehydrated and had features of starvation in addition to suffering from tuberculosis.

The pathologist said 33 of the bodies were severely decomposed while two were moderately decomposed.

The pathologist said they could not establish the causes of death for 18 bodies.

However, he said 14 bodies had features of starvation while one had head injuries.

One had features of strangulation.

"None of the bodies we conducted postmortem on had missing organs, but the organs were badly decomposed," he said.

So far the pathologists have conducted postmortem for 115 bodies.

By Wednesday the team is expected to complete autopsies for the remaining 16 bodies.

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