Caroline Akinyi, the mother of Elijah Obuong – one of the Kitengela Four – has confessed to ordering the exhumation of her late son’s body.
Akinyi on Saturday said that she is not afraid of turning herself in since police have launched a manhunt for seven people reported to have exhumed the body.
She said that all she needs is peace to mourn her late son and the police should respect that.
“The body would have been swept into the waste pit if we had not acted. Elijah was my son. So, don’t pester me with questions on his body’s whereabouts.
“I can decide to bury it anywhere else, even in Tanzania,” she told the Standard.
Obuong was buried in Holo, Muhoroni after his body was found at a Murang’a Mortuary a week after his disappearance.
Police sources indicated that the body was exhumed and carried in a plastic bag. The coffin was put back in the grave and filled with soil.
A hearse was on site to transport the body.
Family sources say that Obuong had been buried at his aunt’s home and not his parent’s home which was the point of departure.
“His aunt felt she owed Obuong’ a decent send-off because she brought him up from childhood to adulthood,” a family source told a local daily.
Kisumu County Police Commander Samuel Anampiu said that they are going after a relative who may have been part of the group that exhumed Obuong’s body.
“We are tracking down a close family member, whom we believe organised the illegal exhumation,” Anampiu told the Standard.
Obuong was with his three friends Jack Onyango, Benjamin Ombai and Brian Odour at a pub in Kitengela.
The quartet went missing a few minutes after leaving the premises. A week later, his body was found in Muranga.
Imbai’s body was found on General Kago mortuary in Thika.
The whereabouts of Oduor and Onyango remain unknown. The quartet are said to have been involved in criminal activities.
Each of them had a police record of criminal activities. Their operating hub was in Mombasa, Kajiado, Machakos and Nairobi.
A post-mortem report indicated that the deceased died of strangulation.
