Image: FILE
Government pathologist Johansen Oduor has revealed how they found themselves in the vast Shakahola forest in Kilifi.
Speaking to delegates attending the 14th Kemri Scientific and Health Conference in Nairobi, Oduor said it all begun on March 22 when the office of the government pathologist received a notification from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
The notification was requesting for exhumation of bodies of two children who had been buried in a shallow grave at Shakahola after starving to death due to extreme religious practices.
This was upon application by the DCI to a Magistrate court in Malindi which issued an order for exhumation as per the Kenyan law.
“When you look at the order, it was known that it was only two children who had been buried but when we went there, we found that they were not just two children, there were actually so many people and it now required serious planning with the multi-disciplinary team,” Oduor said.
He said based on the initial exhumation order, only three pathologists had gone to Shakahola hoping they would be done with the exercise within three days.
On getting to the burial site, they discovered that there were mass graves.
“Initially when we went there we were only three pathologists, we thought within three days we would be back because they were only two children,” he said.
"But when you are doing work of that magnitude you need more resources, you need more pathologists, you need more police officers, the government chemist and other people,” he added.
It was after serious planning with the multidisciplinary team that the exhumation exercise finally started and went on till October.
“Exhumation process involved identification of graves by use of informants, securing the graves, marking the grave, mapping the area, photography and subsequent exhumation,” the government pathologist said.
The bodies were then given unique identifiers, bagged and transported to Malindi Sub county hospital mortuary where they were received and given an admission number and then refrigerated.
Oduor acknowledged that the job is not yet done as there are more exhumations which will be commencing in March once the DNA test results of the bodies already exhumed are out and the bodies released to their loved ones for burial.