By Arnold Neliba
KILIFI, JUNE 16, 2023 (CISA)– A delegation from the Catholic Church in Kenya has been blocked from accessing the active scene of crime of the Shakahola Massacre in Kilifi County by security officers on Thursday, June 15, 2023.
The delegation led by Fr Nicholas Makau, a Consolata Missionary and in charge of the Catholic Justice and Peace Department at the Religious Superiors Conference of Kenya (RSCK) disclosed that those working in heavily guarded forest are in “strong need” of psychosocial support. He believes the restrictions imposed on persons working in Shakahola risk their well-being.
“Our aim was to give psychosocial support to the security people working there and the people who were doing the exhumation of those bodies. After organizing with all the security, we agreed we shall go there on Thursday, met the security apparatus and then we left only to be blocked from accessing the scene,” decried Fr Makau.
According to Fr Makau, the government through its security apparatus is playing games and restricts entry to the crime scene, and further conceals vital information on crucial happenings in Shakahola. Despite seeking clearance from Nairobi and security at the county level and being allowed entry, the team was blocked at the point of entry into the forest.
“We were blocked by the command base at the scene who claimed not to have gotten any orders from Nairobi. The government is playing games to conceal information on what is happening in Shakahola,” he laments underscoring that security at the ground had been told to deal directly with Nairobi and not at the county level.
From the information gathered with the personnel from different groups stationed outside the entry point, the priest posits that things have changed; the exhumers no longer work in shifts but continuously to restrict entry and exit. He says the members of the Kenya Red Cross Society who enjoyed unlimited access to the scene have also been locked out and only the police officers move freely.
“They told us that the group that was allowed was only seven people belonging to Red Cross and the exhumers remained inside the enclosed area. They used to change shifts and only the police are allowed in and out. The exhumers have to remain there until the operation comes to an end,” Fr Makau shared with CISA.
He says, to further limit access to the scene, the government designated only one point of entry as opposed to the earlier three, from Tsavo East, Garissa and one through Malindi, which remains open and is where the police command base is stationed.
“The government does not want people to know what is going on there. The place is completely sealed, and according to scattered information from the police base stationed at the entry of the scene of the crime, no one is supposed to reach where the delegation had reached,” he adds.
Comparing the current situation to a time when he managed to gain access to the forest in a delegation of Prof Kithure Kindiki, the Cabinet Secretary of Interior and National Coordination, he alludes that things have changed with the frequent transfers of police officers and tougher restrictions put in place.
Whether there were external forces involved in the Shakahola Massacre, Fr Makau says “The government is aware of what happened and they don’t want it to be known. Was the man given any permission to stay in that forest? It is a public land? What was registered in that land?”
He notes that in an engagement with an anonymous individual “what was happening was cultic practices and devil worshipping especially by people in high places.”
“What we have been told is that most of the bodies were found without some parts of the body. If someone was dying because of lack of food then why is it that their bodies were opened? Some had no tongues, kidneys missing, sexual organs mutilated,” he explains.
“We are saying this silence is not good and those people who are working there will explode. Our concern is what will happen to these people?” He said this on behalf of the delegation comprising Catholic priests, nuns, religious brothers and catholic laypeople working in the Catholic Dioceses of Malindi, Mombasa and Garissa.
Today, the Shakahola death toll hit 326 as detectives exhumed 8 more bodies.
