A homicide detective recounted to the court the harrowing discovery of bodies from the Shakahola massacre, found bound with ropes and wrapped in blankets and white sheets.
In his testimony, Police Constable Bernard Jefwa detailed how they exhumed a total of 429 bodies from the expansive forest, transferring them to the morgue one by one.
“I extracted the bodies from the soil after grave diggers had reached the burial site. I marked each body and assigned them field names before sealing the body bags and removing them from the graves,” Jefwa stated.
Jefwa explained that his supervisor, Martin Nyunguto, called him on April 17 last year, instructing him to travel to Kilifi County to investigate the deaths of two minors under unclear circumstances and their subsequent burial.
The court heard that Jefwa traveled to Malindi the following day, and on April 19, he entered the forest with a team that included the homicide director, forensic experts, crime scene investigators, pathologists, government chemists, public health officers, and others.
“Upon arriving at Shakahola Forest, my colleagues and I encountered individuals sleeping under the sheds, appearing weak. Later, we conducted searches, rescues, and grave identifications. Some victims looked sickly and requested water,” the court heard.
On that same day, the team was shown the grave where it was alleged the two minors were buried.
“During the process of identifying whether there were more victims, we realized that the area was vast and contained many suspicious graves aside from the one we had come to exhume,” Jefwa added.
The focus of the operation then shifted to rescue and grave identification, guided by witnesses such as Alex Agoi, an escapee.
The exhumation commenced on April 23 at a location described as Kwa Mugambi.
“This is where we exhumed more bodies, marked them, and placed them in different body bags, which were then zipped under the supervision of the pathologists and later escorted to Malindi Sub-County Referral Mortuary for preservation,” Jefwa concluded.
