A mobile morgue arrived at Shakahola Forest in Kilifi County, on Wednesday, April 26, to store and transport dead bodies.
The government aims to use the mobile morgue to store the bodies of cult victims alleged to have been indoctrinated by controversial pastor, Paul Mackenzie.
A mobile morgue unit, according to Penncare - a healthcare service provider in the US - can be quickly deployed and set up in place of an official mortuary.
“They are used when the influx of deceased is so great that regular morgue facilities are filled,” notes Penncare.
Refrigerated containers, or reefer containers, are modified with racks to freeze bodies at temperatures below 4 degrees Celsius (4°C)
They range from smaller trailers capable of holding about 16 sets of remains to full-size, fifty-three-foot trailers that can house up to ninety sets of remains.
The containers are also fully equipped to handle autopsies, data collection on human remains, and storage of remains.
Mobile morgues are used during mass casualty events as an emergency response plan.
It is crucial when there are mass casualty events in remote areas as they are used to safely store the bodies in bulk before they are transported to other facilities.
Previously, mobile morgues were used in the US to store bodies during the Covid-19 pandemic, as morgues were overwhelmed due to high demand.
The mobile morgue in Malindi helped officials to store the more than 73 bodies unearthed so far in the Shakahola massacre. With the ongoing investigation, the number of bodies was poised to increase.
Among the bodies retrieved were children below 18 years suspected of being followers of controversial Pastor Paul Mackenzie.
On April 25, 2023, Interior Cabinet Secretary (CS), Kithure Kindiki, recommended genocide charges against controversial pastor Paul Mackenzie over the massacre that occurred inside Shakahola Forest. He also sealed off Shakahola village as a crime scene and ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew for 30 days.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Noordin Haji, added that he was looking into pressing for terrorism, aiding individuals to kill themselves, and indoctrination charges.
Postmortem on the bodies was scheduled to commence on Thursday, April 27.
