MANASE OTSIALO
Saturday, August 9, 2014
THE body of a police officer killed during a rescue operation after the May 19 al Shabaab attack on a car transporting miraa in Omar Jillo village on the Kenya-Somali border is still missing.
Collins Shikuku, acting for Mandera county CID director, said they suspect the body of Nick Malipe is among two bodies buried without a DNA test in a Mandera Muslim cemetery.
He had appeared before Mandera law courts seeking orders to exhume the bodies.
He said the dead were burned beyond recognition and two of the bodies recovered at Khadija Haji, 20km into Somali a day later, were hurriedly buried.
“I request the court to grant orders for the exhumation,” Shikuku told the court.
Resident magistrate Duncan Mtai granted the orders.
A reliable police source said the mix-up was caused by the officer's relatives who demanded to carry out the burial according to Islamic doctrines.
“We have the court order and the CID director has left for Nairobi to organise for pathologists and the slain officer’s relatives to come for the DNA test,” said our source.
He said the exercise will be conducted next week.
The body of Sergeant Sulubu Kenneth was identified and buried in Malindi.
The officers were abushed by suspected al Shaaab militants on their way to rescue miraa vehicles that had been hijacked.
Two regular police officers were killed and their bodies taken to Somali.