NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 26 — A postmortem exercise for the River Yala bodies is set to begin on Wednesday after it failed to kick off Tuesday.
HAKI Africa Chief Executive Officer Hussein Khalid told Capital News on Tuesday that the exercise failed to kick off due to the unavailability of the Chief Government Pathologist.
Khalid said that at least 21 bodies were expected to undergo the process pointing out that the post mortem exercise is expected to take four days.
On Tuesday, two more bodies were retrieved from River Yala a day after another body was recovered from the same location raising the number of bodies retrieved on diverse dates to twenty-five.
“HAKI Africa can confirm that today, Tuesday, 26th January 2022, two more bodies have been retrieved from River Yala. Detectives from DCI were present and the bodies were taken to Yala Sub County Hospital Mortuary,” HAKI Africa said in a statement.
The rights organization stated that it remains committed to following up the matter to its conclusion to ensure families get justice.
Khalid stated that together with activist Boniface Mwangi they held talks with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) homicide team to demand a speedy probe into the issue that has elicited anger among Kenyans.
However, while the rights groups have maintained all the bodies recovered from the recover were dumped recently, authorities have refuted the claims insisting the body count is a cumulative figure dating back two years ago.
In a statement released on January 22, Amnesty International Kenya, claimed that the 21 bodies at the Yala morgue and nine others buried in a mass grave were found over the last six months.
“All bodies found have evidence of physical torture and drowning. The bodies had been reported to the local police but there has been a lack of urgency or interest in investigating who has killed these deceased individuals, who is dumping them and why in the Yala river. We are now deeply concerned that the Hospital Mortuary plans to dispose of the 21 bodies by 31 January 2022,” Irüngü Houghton, Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director, said.
Houghton called on the the National Assembly and Senate to commission a joint parliamentary enquiry into the rising cases of abductions, forced disappearances and dumping of bodies in different parts of the country.
“The Cabinet to ratify and implement the International Convention on Protection of All Enforced Disappearances to enhance national and international accountability,” he added
Houghton further called on the establishment of missing and deceased persons database to preserve DNA and other evidence.
A week ago, Police Spokesman Bruno Shioso said that a special team from the DCI had been dispatched on the scene to expedite the probe into the incidents.
“In the last two years, nineteen (19) incidences involving human bodies that have been found dumped in River Yala have been reported to the National Police Service. This number represents a cumulative body count over the stated period contrary to media reports insinuating all the incidences are a recent occurrence,” he stated.
On Monday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i urged members of the public to desist from speculating over the issue until investigations are concluded.
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