Police have denied claims that bodies retrieved from River Yala are a recent occurrence.
In a statement on Wednesday, National Police Service (NPS) spokesperson Bruno Shioso said 19 bodies have been retrieve from the river in the past 2 years.
“In the last two years, 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,” said Shioso.
Earlier reports indicated that at least 21 bodies had been recovered from the river in the month of January alone.
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Shioso also indicated that investigations have been ongoing with a special team drawn from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) tasked with looking into the matter.
“A team from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations was appointed and tasked with investigations that have been ongoing on the incidences,” said the spokesperson.
He added that a special forensic investigations team from the DCI has been dispatched to the scene at River Yala and the Yala Sub County Level 4 hospital to assist with further investigations.
Despite public appeals, he said, the bodies which are suffocating the Yala Sub County Level 4 hospital are yet to be claimed.
PRESS RELEASE
Retrieval of bodies in river Yala. pic.twitter.com/5d9NlKnOdZ
— National Police Service-Kenya (@NPSOfficial_KE) January 19, 2022
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“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,” continued Shioso.
The police have appealed to anyone with information that can help with the investigations to share it in any of its offices across the country.
In a video that has since gone viral, a man believed to be a resident of Yala claims to have spotted several bodies near the Ndanu falls and the river.
He alleged that some of the bodies had cuts and torture marks.
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In 2021, residents of Ulungo village in Bondo subcounty complained over the growing number of bodies being discovered in the river.
So dire was the situation that locals said dogs were feeding on the decomposing bodies, dragging some of the body parts to their homes.
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