Samples of teeth, bones, and nails were collected from all the 453 bodies exhumed in Shakahola for DNA

BY ERIC ABUGA

Chief Inspector Job Wafula Wanyonyi has described finding emaciated and dying individuals in Shakahola, and despite their efforts, four people died during the rescue mission, including two men and two women.

The officer told court of arresting several individuals who were guarding the confined areas, armed with ‘rungus’ and ‘jembes’ (hoes).

Among those rescued was a minor, who shared with a panel of officers that they were forced to fast to the point of starvation. 

Wafula as testifying before Principal Magistrate Nelly Chepchirchir at the Tononoka Children’s Court in a case against controversial preacher Paul Nthenge Mackenzie and his 35 co-accused persons, who are facing multiple serious charges including cruelty to children, torture, and denial of education, all linked to the Shakahola massacre. 

The Police officer was part of the first team that responded to intelligence reports of suspicious activity in the Shakahola forest. 

On 13th April 2023, Inspector Wafula led a fact-finding mission that revealed dozens of people confined in makeshift canopies, many of whom were too weak to walk or speak.

In chilling digital evidence presented to the court, Police Constable Joseph Mwai, a Digital Forensic Expert attached to the Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, recounted how, on 31st January 2024, he was tasked by the Anti-Human Trafficking Child Protection Unit to extract data from a mobile phone belonging to one of the witnesses. 

Using a Universal Forensic Extraction Device (UFED), Constable Mwai told court that he recovered four photographs that depicted malnourished individuals. The images were presented in court. One, he noted, was time stamped 24th April 2023 at 12:07 p.m.

Government Pathologist Dr. Richard Njoroge, who performed post-mortem examinations on four bodies recovered from mass graves in Shakahola.

Dr. Njoroge told the court that due to advanced decomposition, the cause of death could not be determined for most of the cases, as the bodies were reduced to skeletal remains. 

However, he did confirm that in several cases, starvation appeared to be the cause of death, citing extreme loss of body mass in relation to height.

The court also heard that samples of teeth, bones, and nails were collected from all the 453 bodies exhumed in Shakahola and DNA testing was done to match the remains with relatives searching for their loved ones. Some of these DNA matches have successfully identified victims.

Led by Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Jami Yamina, alongside Principal Prosecution Counsel Betty Rubia and Prosecution Counsels Eunice Odongo and Biasha Khalifa, Prosecution sought to lay bare the disturbing conditions and coordinated abuses that took place under Mackenzie's alleged influence.

One of the witnesses, Maxwell Kisienya, the Director of Bridge International Academy in Lungalunga, testified about a pupil identified as S.B.B., who was last seen at the school in October 2017. 

Kisienya explained that the child had been a student for two years but failed to return after being sent home due to unpaid school fees on October 19, 2017. 

Since then, the school had not received any formal transfer request, a standard procedure when students join another institution, and no one knew of the child's whereabouts.