Seven more bodies have been retrieved from River Yala raising alarm over mysterious killings that continue to be reported in Siaya County.
Speaking to members of the press on Monday, Yala Sub-county Medical Superintendent Dr. Bruno Okal appealed to members of the public to visit the hospital morgue and help in the identification of the bodies.
According to Dr. Okal, three of the bodies were recovered from River Yala and four along the river within the community, in the last two months.
Dr. Okal said the mortuary has a capacity of 16 bodies and serves three counties of Siaya, Vihiga and Kakamega by virtue of its location along the border.
He added that the facility is overstretched with unidentified bodies.
“So far we have six male and one female bodies lying at Yala morgue. We would like the public to identify and pick them for burial to ease the congestion,” Okal said.
32 bodies retrieved from River Yala
Early this year, the Yala River hit headlines after 32 bodies were retrieved from the river with thirteen bodies positively identified by their kin and collected for burial from the Yala sub-County Mortuary.
Some of the bodies had ropes around their necks and the fingers were severed or burnt in what authorities believe was meant to erase their identities.
Among those positively identified were the former Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) officer Francis Osore Oyaro and John Kiruki Karimi alias Kiruu. The families of the deceased collected the remains of their loved ones after their DNA samples matched the two bodies.
Osore went missing on August 28 last year as he was travelling from his workstation in Marsabit to Nakuru. He had just been granted leave from the Marsabit National Park, where he was the assistant warden, and was scheduled to visit his family.
Workmates said the officer left Marsabit aboard a KWS van and alighted in Nanyuki, where he reportedly boarded a matatu to Nakuru. He was to use the Naromoru-Kanyagia route.
The matatu was, however, intercepted by two men in a black saloon car. They flaunted some identification cards and instructed the driver to show them Osore’s luggage.
The identification of the two victims brought to nine the number of bodies retrieved from River Yala, whose identities are known.
The others include George Abongo, Eric Omeno, Margaret Atieno, Titus Lisutha, Philip Chepkuony, Peter Mutuku and Erastus Ndirangu
An investigation had revealed that almost all of the men had a criminal past and were the victims of a brutal death squad with the resources to kill, transport and dump bodies continuously in one area as local police looked away.
The police have, however, denied accusations by human rights groups of being behind the killings.
They had urged the public to give investigators time to find the killers.
