- The Danson Mungatana-led committee last Friday ordered the arrest of Oduor after he failed to appear before members for a third time.
- Mungatana asked the police to present Oduor, who was also fined Sh500,000, before the committee.
Image: FILE
The key suspect in the Shakahola case, Paul Mackenzie and Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor have snubbed Senate summons.
The two were scheduled to appear before the Senate Ad Hoc Committee investigating Shakahola deaths on Tuesday but sent regrets even as the lawmakers complete the probe.
The Danson Mungatana-led committee last Friday ordered the arrest of Oduor after he failed to appear before members for a third time.
Mungatana asked the police to present Oduor, who was also fined Sh500,000, before the committee.
He also asked the Kenya Prisons Service to present Mackenzie, who is being held at Shimo La Tewa Prison at the coast, on the same day.
“The government has not helped bring the two to the committee. We will proceed to write the report and we will mention it in the recommendations. It will be up to the House to decide,” Mungatana stated.
Mungatana, who is also the Tana River Senator said Mackenzie-leader of the Good News International Church-would have used the occasion to set the record straight.
The Senator said the committee received a letter from Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha saying Oduor would not be available to the committee.
He further noted that lawyers representing Mackenzie had written to the committee saying they needed one month to present their client to the senators.
“The Prisons Department said they the lawyers told them they were not ready to present their client to the committee,” Mungatana added.
Bodies of followers of Pastor Mackenzie’s Good News International Ministries have been found in shallow graves in the forest in what is being investigated as mass murder.
Multi-agency security teams discovered shallow graves on the 800-acre parcel of land, an area that was declared a crime scene and sealed off after the discovery of mass graves.
Mackenzie has been accused of brainwashing the victims into starving to death on the belief that they would meet Jesus Christ.
As of the end of September, 429 bodies had been exhumed from Shakahola forest.
Data indicated that 214 died from starvation, 39 from asphyxia, 14 from head injury, while 115 remain unascertained, and others from other causes.