Four more bodies have been exhumed from Kwa Binzaro, Kilifi County, bringing the total recovered since Thursday to nine.
The second day of exhumations saw three graves dug up, containing four bodies, where victims were buried naked in shallow graves.
Government agencies have hinted at the possibility of more mass graves in the area since the homicide department has mapped out a total of 27 graves.
The exhumation, however, reveals that the graves are shallow, unlike the ones discovered in Shakahola, within the same Chakama range.
The manner in which the bodies were interred also differs from the Shakahola incident.
The exercise is expected to continue next week, with the graves already mapped out exhumed as the search for more graves continues simultaneously—an exercise made that much harder by the expansiveness of the area under review.
The areas where the graves were placed are also bushy.
Government pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor says once the process of exhumation is complete, the process of identification of the bodies through DNA testing will commence, just like it happened in Shakahola.
“We managed to process three graves today, which were scattered all over, and one of the graves had two bodies,” Dr. Oduor said.
According to Dr. Oduor, the burial style suggests that the bodies were interred in a rush, unlike in Shakahola 1, where corpses were often wrapped in sheets.
“The graves are shallower than they were in Shakahola 1. When we were exhuming Shakahola 1, the bodies were well wrapped in some sheets, but right now, we are finding skeletons with no clothes. We think they were probably buried in a hurry,” he added.
The government is now asking relatives of missing persons to report and submit their DNA samples for possible matching.
At the same time, the government says it is ready to release 37 bodies from the Shakahola massacre that were positively matched to their families for burial.
