Families to collect Shakahola bodies as closure search starts
On March 17, 2023, Francis Wanje, a lecturer at Tana River based Galana Teachers Training College (TTC) received a distress call informing him of disturbing activities inside Shakahola Forest where his relatives including his daughter and her family were.
At the time, two of Wanje’s grandsons Imani Ngala aged two years and Seth Hinzano Ngala, aged five were already dead and buried in the shallow graves while one of their siblings was on the verge of death.
“The caller asked me to coordinate transport and security for a rescue mission. I did what I could and called the OCS in Lango Baya who provided the two security officers and they rushed to the forest straight to the house where my daughter and the other members were living,” Wanje recalls of what would later unfold into an earthshaking starvation cult saga.
It was after the first aid was administered on the rescued child to regain strength that the whole truth about the Shakahola started coming out.
In total, he lost eight family members including her daughter Emily Kahunda 35, and her two sons.
Wanje represents hundreds of families who are hoping for closure as the government begins releasing bodies of the cult victims today. Families of the victims are expected to flock the Malindi Sub County Hospital Funeral home where more than 400 bodies exhumed from the shallow graves are currently being preserved, to receive the bodies.
