KILIFI, Kenya – The long and painful wait for families seeking closure after the Shakahola massacre is far from over, as the government struggles with a funding shortfall that has stalled critical DNA tests.
The Office of the Government Chemist, tasked with identifying victims of the country’s deadliest religious-inspired killings, has revealed that resource constraints and bureaucratic hurdles have severely slowed the process.
“It is a very expensive undertaking, especially when dealing with exhumed remains,” said Dr. Joseph Kimani, Head of the Forensics Directorate. “You are not using your ordinary extraction methods; you are using highly stringent chemical regimes.”
The remains retrieved from Shakahola were in varying states of decomposition, complicating the identification process.
Experts say the bodies were buried in conditions that accelerated DNA degradation, making extraction difficult.
“Most samples were in bad shape. Because of soil conditions and decomposition, the DNA is highly degraded,” explained William Munyoki from the Office of the Government Chemist.
To facilitate identification, families of the victims were asked to provide DNA samples for comparison.
However, the number of samples collected has been insufficient, further delaying the process.
“If you have a certain number of bodies from a disaster, you require about three times that number in reference samples from relatives,” Dr. Kimani explained. “The delay is largely due to how fast we can get more families to come forward for testing.”
Even if more families step up, the financial burden of testing remains a major obstacle.
Officials say the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests required for degraded remains are not available in Kenya and must be outsourced at a high cost.
“There is no local manufacturer of these DNA kits,” Munyoki noted. “We have to procure them from abroad, and the procurement process is lengthy. One kit for just 200 runs costs almost Ksh.1 million, so the total expense for Shakahola is monumental.”
Out of the 453 bodies exhumed from Shakahola, only 333 samples have been tested so far.
An even smaller number have been matched to living relatives, leaving many families without answers.
“We have some profiles that haven’t been matched to any relatives, so more families need to come forward for sampling,” Munyoki urged.
For grieving families, the delay means an extended period of uncertainty and distress.
The government has not provided a clear timeline for when the testing process will be completed, leaving relatives in limbo.
Each passing day postpones the dignified burials they had hoped for, prolonging an ordeal that has already been filled with unimaginable pain.
