Shakahola Tragedy: Kilifi County give families a 21-day collection notice

For many Kenyans, Shakahola has become a story from 2023.

At Malindi Sub-County Hospital, however, it is still a daily reality.

A refrigerated 40-foot container holds hundreds of remains recovered from the forest, while families continue searching for relatives who disappeared into the tragedy.

Kilifi County has now opened another 21-day window for identification and collection, saying the unclaimed remains could be interred by December.

Why are hundreds of Shakahola bodies still there?

The answer is largely forensic.

Many of the remains were recovered from shallow graves after significant decomposition, making ordinary visual identification difficult or impossible.

During the early exhumations, government pathologists reported that some bodies were so severely decomposed that even determining sex or cause of death was difficult.

DNA samples were therefore collected as a more reliable means of establishing identity.

The identification process has taken years.

In March 2025, the Government Chemist said 333 DNA samples had been tested from 453 recovered bodies, but many profiles could not be matched because relatives had not provided comparison samples.

Officials also cited the cost and availability of PCR testing kits as part of the problem.

Is 443 the Shakahola death toll?

The Senate's 2023 Ad Hoc Committee reported that 428 bodies had been exhumed by October 13, 2023, while the death of one suspect in custody brought the deaths recorded at that point to 429.

Subsequent exhumations increased the number of recovered bodies.

By 2025, public reporting put the number of bodies recovered at 453.

The current Kilifi notice, however, refers specifically to 443 human bodies and 45 body parts recovered during operations linked to the Shakahola and Kwa Binzaro tragedies and now subject to the identification-and-collection exercise.

So the 443 should be understood as the remains currently covered by the county's notice, not automatically as the final number of people who died.

Why has DNA identification been so difficult?

DNA identification works by comparing a genetic profile from unidentified remains with samples from relatives.

That requires enough usable DNA from the remains and a suitable reference sample from a biological relative.

The Government Chemist said in 2025 that families needed to come forward for cross-matching and that some profiles had remained unmatched.

Officials also said the PCR kits needed for the work were not manufactured locally and had to be imported, adding cost and procurement delays.

The condition of the remains added another layer of difficulty.

Severe decomposition can reduce the amount and quality of usable biological material, which is one reason the exhumation teams relied heavily on scientific identification rather than physical recognition.

Why haven't all the identified remains been collected?

Identification and collection are two different stages.

Kilifi County said this week that only 14 of the 443 remains currently in its custody had been identified by relatives through DNA matching, while some families who were traced reportedly declined to collect the remains because of the stigma associated with the Shakahola tragedy.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights has previously described the prolonged wait for identification and burial as a human-rights and cultural concern, noting that families were being denied the opportunity to bury relatives according to their religious and cultural practices.

What happens to the bodies after the 21 days?

Kilifi's notice, dated September 17, 2026, gives relatives and members of the public 21 days to identify and collect the remains.

Those still unclaimed will be dealt with under the applicable laws and regulations.

The county says it will seek court authority to inter them and has identified land near Shakahola for that purpose.

The county also says the remains will be buried in a way that allows them to be identified in future, with forensic records retained for the ongoing legal process.

The unusual length of this case should also be seen against Kenya's ordinary mortuary rules.

The Public Health (Public Mortuaries) Rules generally restrict storage of bodies in public mortuaries to 10 days, although they provide for longer periods where legal reasons make removal impracticable and the Medical Officer of Health is informed.

The Shakahola remains have therefore remained outside anything resembling a normal mortuary case.

They have been tied to a major forensic investigation, unresolved identification and criminal proceedings.