Postmortem examinations conducted on Monday on the bodies of 22 Shakahola victims failed to determine the precise cause of death.

Chief Government pathologist Johansen Oduor said the 22 were part of 34 bodies they had examined,  including 12 children. He said the bodies of the 22 were severely decomposed.

Among the 34 were 21 females and 10 males as well as three whose sex could not be determined.

Oduor mentioned that twelve displayed features of starvation.

“As for the cause of death, we found that many were very badly decomposed, we were unable to get the cause of death for 22 of them while 12 had features which looked like starvation,” he said.

Dr Oduor said due to the significant number of unidentifiable bodies, the team decided to collect samples for additional DNA testing.

This brings to 79 the number of autopsies done since the second phase of the exercise for 129 victims resumed last week.

The postmortem exercise is expected to end this week, paving the way for a resumption of the exhumations.