The government will resume the exhumation of more bodies in Shakahola forest Kilifi County, Cabinet Secretary (CS) for Interior and National Administration Professor Kithure Kindiki has said.
Speaking at St Joseph Benedict Cottollengo Catholic Church in Meru County, the CS said at the moment, a total of 112 bodies were exhumed from graves found in the forest associated with Paul Mackenzie who has since been arrested.
“On Tuesday I will be officially launching the second phase of the exhumation since the experts are telling us that we still have more graves in the forest which means that the number of bodies will increase,” said Professor Kindiki.
He added that due to security issues, people have been barred from entering the forest which has so far been declared a security operation zone and that those going there should have a valid reason and should first inform security officers who will thereafter escort them.
“We have also asked journalists to cooperate with us because the work that is there is very critical and there are photos that we would not like to be taken due to medical and security ethics which do not allow the press to go there and start filming decomposing bodies. We can easily be sued as a government if we allow this to happen,” said Professor Kindiki.
He said the government has nothing to hide regardless of the number of bodies that will be exhumed from the forest.
“We will tell the world what happened and make sure that the whole truth comes out so that we do not have such an incident again in our country,” said the CS.
He said the government will go after those criminals who were engaged in deaths of innocent men, women and children and make sure they face the most painful punishment ever found in the law books.
“We will make sure they pay for the innocent blood of men, women and children which they have shed,” said Professor Kindiki.
He added: “We recognize the constitution of our country permits the freedom of worship and religion. However, the same constitution does not allow people to exercise the freedom of worship or religion to manipulate the word of God and the Holy Scriptures to hurt people and to engage in criminal activities.”
He however said that the government will continue working with the church and other leaders, especially those preaching the gospel and serving the citizens in the rightful manner, criticizing those who were arguing that the government was fighting the church.
“There is no fight between the government and religion and the church. In fact, we recognize that the Constitution gives freedom of worship and we respect it. We are also Christians and we can’t oppress the church that we belong in,” said Professor Kindiki.
He said politicians trying to politicize the issue or trying to access the forest for political expeditions should be informed that that is a security operation zone and they should keep off unless they have something tangible to do there.
