A forensics team has been dispatched to Yala in Siaya to help identify the bodies from the river as part of investigations.
According to Police Spokesman Bruno Shioso, the special team from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations is expected 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.
Shioso said that despite repeated appeals to the public, no one has so far come forward to claim the bodies that are lying at the Yala Sub County Level 4 hospital.
“The National Police Service appeals to anyone with information that can help with the investigations to share it in any of its offices across the country,” he said.
On Monday, activists Boniface Mwangi and Hussein Khalid of Haki Africa lifted the lid on shocking murders of people killed and their bodies dumped in River Yala.
Mwangi posted a thread on Twitter, detailing their visit to Yala Sub County Hospital mortuary where they counted more than 20 decomposing bodies waiting to be disposed off as unclaimed.
They also interviewed a witness, a Mr Okero Kite who said he has retrieved 31 bodies from River Yala since July last year.
On 10th October 2021 alone, Okero said he retrieved 10 bodies.
‘Each of the 10 bodies were in individual sacks, and in his own words, each body was neatly packed and sealed like a parcel,” Boniface said, quoting the witness.
The discovery elicited mixed reactions amongst Kenyans raising questions on the identity of the victims and those who might be behind their murders.
In the recent months, reports of people being kidnapped and disappearing without a trace has been hitting the headlines with families of missing kin raising an outcry on the whereabouts of their relatives.
