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At the Malindi Sub-County Hospital Funeral Home, emotions surged like a tidal wave as families, torn by the tragedy of the Shakahola starvation cult, gathered to receive the remains of their loved ones yesterday.

Teams of psychological counsellors, Kenya Red Cross volunteers, and security officers stood by, facing the daunting task of comforting and supporting families overwhelmed by grief.

Among them were three families who arrived at the funeral home, where over 400 bodies exhumed from shallow graves, awaited identification and final farewells.

After enduring a lengthy registration and counseling process, the families gathered under a tent near the 300-body capacity mobile morgue donated by the Kenya Red Cross Society as a temporary solution to the overflowing mortuary. With bated breath, they awaited the transfer of bodies for viewing and identification.

One by one, the bodies, in a state of advanced decomposition, were reverently wheeled into the morgue, offering families a painful yet necessary closure.

The first four bodies released belonged to the family of Francis Wanje, a lecturer at Galana Teachers Training College, who became the whistle blower of the Shakahola tragedy a year ago after receiving a distress call on March 17, 2023, about disturbing activities in Shakahola Forest, where his daughter and her family were living.

He lost a total of eight family members, but only four were positively identified and directly linked with the family following DNA profiling by the government chemist.

William Ponda Titus, one of the bereaved families, asked the government to assist them with the burial costs, saying they were caught between a rock and a hard place with no finances to give their loved ones a befitting sendoff.

“We need to raise a budget of about Sh700,000 for the funeral cost of the four bodies. Right now as we speak, there are people coming home to mourn with us, and we don’t even have a budget for their meals,” explained Ponda, who lost his mother, brother, sister-in-law, among other relatives in the tragedy.

Rehema Furaha, another relative, said the family got a reprieve and partial closure after receiving the bodies yesterday, even though they were decomposed beyond recognition.

“But the bodies are badly decomposed, and were it not for DNA, it couldn’t have been possible. We are however unsettled because we don’t know the whereabouts of the other four bodies since we lost eight family members,” Furaha said during a press briefing outside Star Specialist Hospital mortuary, a private facility in Malindi where they had transferred the bodies.

Wanje described it as a tough journey, “We were supposed to get five bodies, but we were told that the other child did not match the DNA. The bodies were in extremely bad condition. Actually, I could not believe to see my family members in such a condition. It took me some time to get back to my senses. I saw my daughter’s body and that of my grandson. I am hoping that I will get the rest in the future.”

So far, he said the family has only managed to raise Sh50,000 against a minimum budget of Sh500,000.
Another family that traveled from Emuhaya sub-County in Vihiga County was stranded after they lacked means to transport the bodies.

Silvano Pondi, leading a delegation of relatives from Emuhaya to receive the body of his brother Raphael Temba Eshukumo, said they started traveling on Sunday after receiving a call from the DCI instructing them to avail themselves in Malindi yesterday. He, however, said the family was not adequately prepared to receive and transport the body.