Leaders from Garissa and activists are now calling on the security official to move with speed and conduct thorough investigations into the killings of several people. In Garissa, police have recovered eight bodies whereas their Madogo counterparts have retrieved six bodies in the past four months all of which are lying at the Garissa referral hospital mortuary. The mystery surrounding the recovery of the bodies have puzzled the police because no one has come forward to report any missing person. Tana North sub-county police commander Ali Ndiema said the police have had challenges in carrying out further investigation because no one has come forward to report a missing person.
Ndiema said that the bodies are so decomposed that the police cannot take the fingerprints, identify them physically. He added that none of the bodies had ID cards or any other identification documents. The sub-county police commander however said the police have taken samples from the bodies to the government chemist for further analysis. His Garissa counterpart Joseph Muriuki reiterated the same appeal adding that police from the Iftin post recovered 4 bodies and officers from Garissa police station retrieved another 4. “The challenge we are faced with as a police service is what to match the samples we have retrieved from the bodies with. That is why we are appealing to members of the public who have missing male person to come forward to help us with the investigations,” Ndiema said.
Speaking to the press at his Garissa residence, Garissa township MP Aden Duale while describing the killings as ‘shocking’ said that Kenyan wants answers to the mysterious deaths. Duale said it was the responsibility of the CS interior, the IG, the office of the DPP and the DCI need to give the country answers to what is going on saying that the last few months several Kenyans have disappeared without trace,”. “It is very shocking that over 16 bodies whose their hands are tied at the back and thrown along Tana river. what is going on in our country. this is a serious homicide that needs through investigations from the ministry of interior. somebody needs to tell us who is behind these killings wheather they are government or they are criminals,” said Duale. He added: “We cannot just watch a people are killed left right and center and their bodies thrown in the river. we need to be told who are these 16 people whose bodies were found along Tana river where they come from and who killed them,”.
HAKI Africa executive director Hussein Khalid speaking to the press after visiting the Garissa morgue while calling on the security team to fastrack investigations aid that they will continue working closely with other local human rights activists in ensuring that the truth comes out. Salah Yussuf from the Garissa civil society said the issue needs to be thoroughly be investigated least in degenerates into something big. “This could be something coming from the security or the community that could breed hostilities.but the backstops with the security who should take in-depth study and analysis of the situation and reveal to kenyans the truth about the matter before it gets out of hand,” said Yussuf. A police officer privy to the investigation who requested anonymity said the two stations would be forced to take the bodies to neighboring counties morgues in case deaths that require police investigations occur.