Image: COURTESY
A Senate committee learned on Tuesday that pastor Paul Mackenzie went to great efforts to hide the graves of his disciples who died of starvation.
In order to hide the graves, Mackenzie even planted vegetables on them, according to Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki, who testified before the Senate Adhoc Committee looking into the fatalities in Shakahola.
"Mackenzie had grown crops on some of the graves. There are those you would find kunde and other vegetables grown on them," he said on Wednesday.
"Other graves were inside houses and that is why it is taking so long to identify all the graves."
Kindiki was describing to the committee the reasons for the lengthy time it was taking the security agencies to locate graves.
The government has found 40 fresh, unopened graves in Shakahola, he had informed the lawmakers.
Security organisations believe the graves may include several bodies, according to the CS.
He claimed that, as of Monday night, 350 bodies had been found overall since the exercise started.
"We have not exhausted the search for more graves. We, therefore, do not know how long it will take," he told senators.
The security agencies' adherence to the Geneva Protocols regarding the processing of mass graves and crime scenes where crimes were perpetrated, he claimed, was another factor contributing to the delayed progress.
