Interior and National Administration Cabinet Secretary (CS) Kithure Kindiki is expected to visit Malindi on Thursday, May 25 to oversee the postmortem of additional 129 bodies that have been exhumed.
In a statement released by the ministry, the CS will also visit the Public Information, Tracing, and Social Support Centre at the edge of Shakahola Forest.
"The CS will also visit the search and rescue operation team within the forest," the ministry said in a statement.
The exact number of people who perished in the massacre might never be known following reports that there are instances where bodies were plunged in random deep pit latrines scattered in the expansive Chakama ranch where cult leader Paul Mackenzie led an unknown number of his followers.
Operation in Shakahola
Sources familiar with the operation in Shakahola disclosed that at some point the number of cult victims dropping dead overwhelmed the standby grave diggers, prompting them to turn to pit latrines for hasty burials.
“One of the survivors we talked to told us that there are bodies plunged in pit latrines and might never be recovered.
"At times the those who were leading the cult operations were getting desperate and ran out of patience to dig graves,” explained a source familiar with the operations in the expansive thicket.
The death toll as of May 19, 2023, rose to 235 following the exhumation of eight more bodies by the forensic team as the number of rescued victims reached 89 after the search and rescue team rescued four more people, one in critical condition.
