Families oppose mass burial for Shakahola kin

Bodies being exhumed from a shallow grave in Paul Makenzi's land in Shakahola, Kilifi County on April 25, 2023. [File, Standard]

Families of the victims of the Shakahola massacre have rejected plans by the State to bury the unidentified bodies in a marked mass grave, saying it goes against their culture.

Out of 453 bodies retrieved from the shallow graves in Shakahola forest, only 34 have been positively identified and handed over to their relatives for burial.

On Saturday,The Standard established that a team of experts was still trying to identify some 419 bodies by matching DNA samples collected from family members who have reported missing kin.

Earlier this week, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said the unidentified bodies would be interred in marked mass graves. He said the identification exercise was proving difficult.

However, families interviewed said the move would rob them of the opportunity of a final farewell, stripping the dead of their dignity as well as worsening the grief of the living.

Patrick Ngumbao, who lost his mother and three of his siblings, said the grief of losing a family member is reduced by giving the dead a befitting sendoff or burial.

“Nothing prepares one for losing a family member and when there are no bodies to bury, it is hard to make sense of what his family is going through,” said Ngumbao.

He said their culture and traditional beliefs also demand that the dead should be buried at home.

“I have had constant dreams of my mother instructing me to bring her and my siblings home. This means that if they bury them at Shakahola forest, I will never find peace in my life,” said Ngumbao.

Ngumbao said among the Mijikenda people, a burial ceremony is tempered with stick rituals, including shaving heads for the bereaved, signifying a new beginning.

It has been a year since Ngumbao gave out his DNA, but none of his family members has been identified.

Ngumabo said they did not anticipate that the tests would take long, and as culture dictates, his family must observe cultural rites, including a seven-day mourning period.

“No wake, no grieving, no closure,” said Ngumbao. He however noted that if the bodies were not identified, the family would have to conduct a mock funeral that includes burying a banana stem.

“All this time, our family has been sitting on the mat because we believe that when we have not held a funeral, we are not supposed to use the bed,” he said.

Stephen Mwiti, who lost his six children to the cult, said even in Christianity, dead bodies are the object of specific rights and rituals to ensure the dignity and respect of the dead and the living relatives.

“For the mass graves, last rites are denied, and there is little regard for the victims’ cultural or religious identities,” said Mwiti.

Mwiti said his wife, Bahati Juan, joined the Good News International cult of Paul Makenzi in 2015 but relocated to Shakahola forest with their six children in 2021.

Victor Kaudo of the Malindi Social Justice Centre said that mass burials are part of human culture but highly unusual in Africa, “And when they happen, they are usually a sign of social disorder.”

“We will go to court to bar the government from getting permission from the court to conduct a mass burial,” said Kaudo, noting that mass graves indicate the prominence of enforced disappearances.