Senate Ad Hoc Committee Probing Shakahola massacre visit the Crime Scene
The Senate Ad Hoc Committee Probing the Shakahola massacre On Saturday visited the scene where 235 bodies of people believed to have starved to death so as to meet their creator were exhumed and came face to face with the tragedy.
The Committee led by Tanariver Senator Danson Mungatana described the scene as horrific and an Act of genocide executed by the rogue Pastor Paul Mackenzie on innocent people in the name of religion.
In the morning the committee visited the county Commissioner’s office before touring the Shakahola Command center and were later taken in the scene where exhumation took place including Galilee where Mackenzie lived, Jerusalem and described it as one of the worst tragedies in the history of the country.
Addressing journalists after the tour and brief meeting with the security team conducting the search and rescue operation and exhumation he said as a committee they will do what it can to tell Kenyans exactly what happened.
He said as they were touring, they found three skeletons of bodies recovered in the forest by the security personnel conducting search and rescue.
“These are not statistics we have come face to face with the depth of our people who died here, we have come face to face with the skeletons of people who were found here, we have come face to face with the ugly side of radicalization and the misuse of religion,” he said.
He said in their probe they will go to many parts of the country where Mackenzie reportedly had branches of his Good News International Church and meet all kinds of people to get as much information as possible.
He said the committee is welcoming any information from anyone wherever he or she is that will help in unravelling the mystery behind the radical teachings of the pastor so as to come up with a conclusive report within the 90 days period given by the state.
The Committee Chairman said the process will be transparent and open to the public and that the report shall be tabled in parliament for debate so as to add more details or approve what they will recommend for action to be taken against those behind the mass deaths.
“We have been able today to visit the place known as Galilea where Mr. Mackenzie was having his house, we have been able to see where he would institute punishment and judgement at that Galilea place,” he said.
Mungatana said they inside the forest they were shown a mass grave that was carrying 67 people at a place called Bethlehem and the headquarters -galilee.
He said they have had meetings with religious leaders and NGOs and collected information on their views.
Mungatana said they will not let things go the way they are for life to go on after the death of over 235 and still counting.
The senator said they will bring in some form of control to bring balance between freedom of speech and public safety to prevent other Mackenzie types of people from operating.
“We want to appeal to our people to be patient with us, we also appeal to those who have lost their loved ones some have been reconnected some have not we want them to be patient because even the DNA process will take time,” he said.
He called on the Kenyans to give the people time to complete the process but assured the nation that such genocide will never happen again.
“For the remaining days of the 90 days we will execute this mandate and we will come up with a good report and we are promising Kenyans this will not happen again,” he said.
The Chairman said they have been reliably informed that there are other forces behind the cultic teachings and vowed to go to the bottom of the matter.
He said they were not a Judicial commission or a court and would collect all the information they will get to be used in their report to make a legislative framework on how religious institutions will operate.
The legislator said there were complaints from locals that they reported to Police but action was not taken as fast as it was.
He said they are waiting for the Department of Police dealing with international affairs to submit their report after completing their report which will be part of the senate report and all those who will be mentioned shall be dealt with in accordance to the law.
Mungatana was accompanied by His Vice Chair and Nominated Senator Shakila Abdalla, Migori Senator Eddy Oketch, Tabitha Mutinda (nominated) Faki Mohamed (Mombasa), William Cheptumo (Baringo), Veronica Maina (nominated), Kisii Senator Richard Onyonka and Hamida Kibwana.
On Her part, Maina a nominated senator called on the interior CS Kithure Kindiki to speed up the development of Langobaya police station and equip it with facilities as currently the nearest police station was far and they had no facilities.
While commending the team conducting the operation, she said the team has confirmed they are well set with a counselling team.
“The biggest request that is also needed that we have noted is an immediate set up of the police station and named Langobaya which is quite a distance that needs to be equipped so we ask the CS to be able to fast track the process of equipping that police station t0o be able to operate so far they are operating very well,” she said.
Oketch on his part said there was a need for the team of personnel to be increased so as to effectively do the operation.
He said they were told that currently there were about 94 to 130 personnel doing the operation but increasing them would be better.
“Any other technological capabilities we have seen that this team here is capable of,” he said.
The Senate committee said they were heading to Malindi to meet other groups including survivors to collect more information.