NAIROBI, Kenya, May 1 — Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki now says that the government is considering a memorial in Shakahola to honor the victims of controversial televangelist Paul Mackenzie’s starvation cult.
Kindiki made the announcement Monday in Kilifi County where the postmortem examination of 109 bodies recovered from Shakahola forest commenced.
He pointed out that the memorial will serve as a reminder to ensure that such tragedy does not occur in the country again.
“We are also contemplating on what to do eventually with that scene of crime and once the process of exhumation, search and rescue is complete,” he stated.
“We will be announcing what government will do with regard to make sure that place remains a memorial for the country to ensure that we always remember that that tragedy visited us.”
The Interior CS sent a message of sympathy to the victims’ relatives and assured Kenyans that the government will not allow such a crime to take place on the Kenyan soil again.
He urged Kenyans to be patient even as government moves to establish the circumstances that led to the deaths.
Accountability
Kindiki also said the government would punish inaction by its officials that may have emboldened Mackenzie.
“Other than establishing the circumstances under which this offences took place, the commission of inquiry will also investigate and make recommendations on action to be taken against any public officer whose, action, inaction, failure, or outright negligence could have caused the deaths that have occurred on our people,” he said.
The objective of the examinations is to determine the actual cause of the victims’ deaths with the emergence of various unconfirmed theories surrounding their demise since the discovery of the mass grave site that has shocked the nation.
“The exercise will enable the state gather more forensic evidence, key in building a watertight case against the perpetrators of the heinous atrocity and deliver justice to the families and friends of the victims,” the Ministry of Interior and National Administration said Monday.
