The Komo family whose kin was mauled by hyenas to death can now breathe a sigh of relief after they got the DNA results of the deceased.
After K24 Digital highlighted the horrifying story of the distraught family last week, sleuths swung into action wiping the tears that the family has been grappling with for four years now.
It has emerged that the DNA results of Joseph Njuguna were released in March last year but the officer in charge of the matter delayed relaying the information to the family thwarting their plans to bury his remains.
According to Agnes Waithera, a family member of the deceased, officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations visited their home on Monday and apologized for the delayed justice for Njuguna who was allegedly attacked by the wild animals as he was grazing livestock in 2017 at the age of 63.
Led by an officer only identified as Mr Nyuguto, the sleuths revealed that the DNA results came out positive signalling that the remains taken to the government’s chemist were of Njuguna.
“We are happy that action has been taken finally. We can now afford to bury Njuguna with dignity having lived with his remains since 2017 when the attack happened. We thank K24 Digital for airing our plight and triggering action,” said Waithera.
Waithera revealed that after thorough investigations by the scene of crime officers, Njuguna’s few body parts among them ribs, intestines, bones, hair and tattered clothes, some of which they have been storing at home, were finally taken to General Kago mortuary in Thika awaiting a postmortem.
The family has been keeping Njuguna’s remains in a green sack inside a wooden box in the family house that is tucked over 20 kilometres from Thika Superhighway.
“The officers told us that after the postmortem, they will help us organize for Njuguna’s burial,” she said.
The action was taken days after the re-emergence of the hyena’s attack in various villages within Kiambu County and which authorities have confirmed as having killed two people in the last two weeks.
Residents of Komo, Kang’oki, Muthaara villages in Thika and Juja respectively say they are living in fear over a possible attack by hyenas, noting that the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has ignored their pleas for help.
