Alarm as 15 bodies fished from Murang'a rivers in two months
Police retrieve the body of one of the men abducted in Kitengela, which was found dumped in Mathioya River in Murang’a County, on April 19. Some rivers in the county have increasingly become dumping grounds for murder victims.
The naked body of a man was on Saturday retrieved from a river in Murang'a County, becoming the 15th corpse to be discovered in a water body in the devolved unit in under two months.
Local police said they were notified of the presence of a male body in Maragua river by a resident of Kindua village. The victim's hands were tied behind his back, indicating foul play.
"The scene was visited by officers from Maragua Police Station as well as scene of crime officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI)," Mr Anthony Keter, who is the Murang'a South Police boss, said.
The body was marked as that of unknown African male aged between 35-40 years and which had started decomposing. It had visible marks on the neck, raising the possibility that the man was strangled to death. The body had no other visible injuries.
Police officers took it to Murang'a Level Five Hospital mortuary for preservation and booked it as a police case.
"We are now reaching out to those searching for their missing kin to show up at the mortuary to establish whether he is the one...We will conduct a post-mortem and carry out more investigations," he said.
Dumping ground
Locals, however, have decried the growing number of bodies dumped in Maragua. They claim that investigators have not cracked a number of the murder cases and called upon them to pull up their socks.
"We cannot recall when a local court convicted a murderer in this Sub-County, yet bodies continue being dumped especially in Maragua Division," Joram Migwi of the Human Rights Awareness Forum told Nation.Africa.
In the past seven weeks, the county's rivers have been in the headlines for being transformed into dumping sites for murder victims.
Elijah Obuong, one of the four men who disappeared from Kitengela last month, was found on April 20 in river Mukungai in Mathioya Sub-County.
A week later, another body was retrieved from the same river, this time stuffed in a gunny bag. Days later, two more bodies were retrieved from a river in Gatanga Sub-County, followed by another in River Chania.
In May, two bodies that were handcuffed were retrieved from the Rubiru stretch of Chania River. Two others were fished from Kandara Sub-County.
In all instances, police say they are investigating the finds as murder.
