By Johnson Chengo.
Kilifi County government received 200 capacity refrigerated container morgue for Shakahola bodies.
The County government of Kilifi has received 200 body capacity refrigerated mobile container morgue from the Kenya Red Cross Society to cut down the overflow of bodies at the Malindi Sub-County hospital.
Addressing journalists in his office on Wednesday, Kilifi County executive committee member for health Peter Mwarogo said the morgue has been overwhelmed due to the delivery of 94 bodies exhumed by police officers in Shakahola forest.
“The Kenya Red Cross Society has agreed to help us with a refrigerated mobile container morgue. I want to thank them for considering the challenges we were going through at the facility. We are going to use it in transferring the bodies that had been exhumed from Shakahola,” said Mwarogo.
The CEC said the morgue has a capacity of 30 bodies.
“The Malindi Sub-County hospital morgue is overstretched because so far, the morgue has received over 90 bodies as a result of the Shakahola tragedy and already it had 29 bodies, so you can see this has exceeded the capacity,” he said.
He adds that, following the exhumation done by detectives from the Homicide Unit of the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) and other security personnel at Pastor Paul Makenzie’s Good News International Church, the morgue now has more than 100 bodies.
The number of bodies has now risen to 94 as police intensify their operation of exhuming remains of people buried at the expansive Makenzi 800-acre land that is part of the 50,000-acre Chakama Ranch.
The discovery of the bodies has shaken the country with many people suspecting their missing relatives could be among the dead finding their way to Malindi Sub-County hospital in the hope of finding any information about their lovely ones.
But as the country is left with more questions than answers, more than 214 people have so far been reported missing since the Shakahola massacre took centre stage.
The majority of them are children aged below 18 years who are believed to have been followers of the controversial Malindi-based pastor.
Makenzie who has been in police custody alongside 13 other followers since April 15 is accused of brainwashing his church members to starve themselves to death so that they can see Jesus.
He is also accused of opposing modern education.
In a letter seen by People Daily Newspaper, Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji has directed investigation officers to identify Makenzie’s assets for preservation and confiscation following the law.
The ODPP undertakes to ensure that the right of the victims is upheld at all times for protection measures, read the letter.
