- The Kenyan government has promised to help the family of John Ogutu to track down and recover his body after he was killed in the fighting in Dar es Salaam on October 29
- Ogutu’s body, reportedly kept in the Mwananyamala Hospital mortuary, is nowhere to be found, adding to the pain of the family
- The Secretary General of Foreign Affairs Korir Sing’oei assured the family that despite the post-election restrictions in Tanzania, efforts are ongoing to secure a dignified burial.
The Kenyan government has assured the family of John Ogutu of its commitment to find the body of the deceased and arrange his return to Kenya.
Source: Twitter
Ogutu, whose family lives in Huruma Estate in Nairobi, lost his life during clashes in Dar es Salaam on October 29.
The city was among the most affected by the unrest.
How John Ogutu met his death
His relatives say he was on his way back to Kenya when the tragedy happened; the 33-year-old man, who was working as a teacher in a coastal city, was shot and killed among other civilians.
Since then it has been revealed that his body, which was reported to have been taken to the Mwananyamala Hospital mortuary after he died of gunshot wounds, cannot be found.
Vocal Africa, a human rights organization based in Nairobi, called on the Kenyan government to intervene, submitting a petition to Foreign Secretary Korir Sing’oei.
Family and friends who went to the mortuary were shocked to find the body missing, which has added to their grief as they struggle to come to terms with his death.
Is the Kenyan government tracking the body of John Ogutu?
Finally the family got an audience with Sing’oei, who informed them about the efforts made by the government to return the body of their relative.
Sing’oei explained that the post-election processes in the country Tanzaniaincluding the inauguration of President Samia Suluhu, made it difficult for the Kenyan mission to trace the body.
He assured them that the mission was still focused on the process of finding the body and bringing it home for a dignified burial.
“I met the family of the late John Okoth Ogutu, a school teacher in Tanzania, who lost his life during the post-election violence in Dar es Salaam. I assured them of the government’s commitment to find and return the remains of our late citizens,” Sing’oei said.
The location of Ogutu’s body has come amid concerns that the Tanzanian police forcefully removed the bodies from the mortuary to bury them in unknown locations.
Were the bodies hidden by the police in Tanzania?
As previously reported by TUKO.co.ke, United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk expressed his concern about what he called Tanzania’s reluctance to reveal the true extent of the post-election violence in the country.
In an official statement, he warned that the crisis could be worse than officials admitted.
Source: Getty Images
Türk featured stories of families frantically moving between police stations and hospitals in search of missing loved ones, often without success.
He asked the authorities to reveal the fate of those whose whereabouts are still unknown and to release the bodies of the dead so that the relatives can bury them properly.
The human rights chief also warned of claims that corpses were being taken from hospitals to undisclosed locations, perhaps to hide evidence of the genocide, claims echoed by hospitals that reported police removing bodies from morgues to hide the true scale of the violence.
At the same time, a CNN report indicated the possibility of mass graves in the north of Dar es Salaam, seeming to confirm the story of the bodies being taken by the police to unknown locations.
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Source: TUKO.co.ke
