Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

Kenya

Immigration Ministry, CID to help identify Garissa bodies

84 bodies remain unidentified at the Chiromo mortuary, with only 61 identified by relatives. Photo/CFM.

84 bodies remain unidentified at the Chiromo mortuary, with only 61 identified by relatives. Photo/CFM.

NAIROBI, Kenya Apr 5 – Deputy President William Ruto has in the meantime, directed staff at the Registration of Persons department to head to Chiromo mortuary to help in the bodies identification process.

The DP who spoke after visiting victims at the Kenyatta National Hospital said relatives should not be subjected to more agony in the long journey of identifying their kin.

“The families are traumatised and we don’t want to have them undergo more trauma,” Ruto said after visiting the Disaster Operations Centre at the Nyayo National Stadium.

He also directed detectives from the CID headquarters to join in the identification process on Monday morning to compliment efforts of the Immigration ministry personnel.

This follows the challenges facing some of the relatives who have been unable to identify the disfigured bodies of their relatives at the Chiromo mortuary.

“The staff at the Registration of Persons department should get there (Chiromo) as soon as possible to facilitate the exercise,” he said.

84 bodies remain unidentified at the Chiromo mortuary, with only 61 identified by relatives.
All the 148 bodies of people shot dead in Garissa were taken to the Chiromo mortuary where the identification process is coordinated by the Kenya Red Cross.

The Deputy President has assured families that the government will ensure victims of the Garissa University terror attack get a decent send off and settle all their bills.

The government has vowed an offensive never seen before in tackling terrorism activities in the country after the latest massacre at the only public university in northern Kenya, perpetrated by five terrorists, four of whom were killed. Police are also holding five others said to have been trying to cross into Somalia after the attack.

Already police have identified one of the slain attackers as Abdirahim Abdullahi, a law graduate who attained his degree at the University of Nairobi before crossing into Somalia where he sharpened his radicalization skills.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

The slain terrorist is one of the four men who stormed the Garissa University College on Thursday morning and executed 148 people, mainly students before three of them were shot dead by police. The fourth one blew himself up.

“It is true one of the four Al Shabaab militants who stormed Garissa University College killing 148 plus students has been identified as Abdirahim Abdullahi the son of a chief in Mandera County,” Interior Spokesman Mwenda Njoka said following our inquiry.

He said the father had reported to authorities about his missing son whom they believed crossed to Somalia. Abdullahi is thought to have gone to Somalia in 2013.

“The father had reported to the authorities that his son had gone missing and suspected the boy had gone to Somalia,” Njoka went on to say of the slain terrorist “who was a University of Nairobi law graduate and described by a person who knows him well as a brilliant upcoming lawyer.”

Investigators have traced records at a secondary school he studied known as WAMY High School and established that he obtained an A- grade when he sat for his Kenya Certificate of Secondary School Examinations (KCSE) exam in 2007, according to the Interior Ministry Spokesman.

“It is indeed very necessary and critical that parents whose children go missing or show tendencies of having been exposed to violent extremism report to authorities to help prevent further escalation of radicalization,” he said.

Police were still trying to identify the rest of the three slain terror suspects.

The naked bodies of the slain terrorists were on Saturday paraded to enable local residents in Garissa identify them.

About The Author

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News