Investigators and pathologists have so far conducted 329 autopsies since the process of establishing the causes of death for victims of controversial preacher Paul Mackenzie started more than one month ago.
Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor said Monday that his team was remaining with nine bodies after conducting 87 autopsies since phase three of the exercise started last week.
He told journalists at the Malindi Sub County Hospital Mortuary Tuesday that phase three of the autopsies would be concluded on Tuesday to pave the way for a possible phase four of exhumations in Shakahola.
On Monday, the team carried out autopsies on 22 out of the 31 bodies that had remained. Dr. Oduor explained that the number of bodies requiring autopsies had increased by two after one of the victims died in prison while two bodies that were exhumed from the Shakahola graves had been wrapped in one sheet and counted as one.
Dr. said 12 of the bodies were of children while eight were of adults and that the ages of two bodies could not be ascertained due to the high level of decomposition, representing 12 bodies of females and eight bodies of men with the gender of two not determined.
Dr. Oduor, who was flanked by the Director of the Homicide Unit at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, Martin Nyuguto, said 14 of the victims had died of starvation while his team could not establish the cause of the death of eight victims as they were severely decomposed.
