No bodies recovered as Kware retrieval exercise resumes after two-week break

The process of searching for bodies dumped at the dumpsite in Embakasi ended on Wednesday without a single find.

Floating sacks and nylon bags suspected to have contained dismembered body parts were found without human flesh instead containing pieces of trash that had been dumped at the pit.

The exercise was supervised by DCI Homicide detectives, a team from the Kenya Red Cross and local police officers in a less chaotic environment compared to last time.

"We did not find any bodies today, remember the persons helping with the retrieval are volunteers with limited skills in this task. The pit is also quite risky, it's deep, waterlogged and topped with garbage which they have to sift through to access any possible bodies," said Daudi Toure, a member of the Mukuru Community Social Justice Centre which has been coordinating the young men helping retrieve the bodies at the pit.

So deep is the pit that two lorries that dump waste into the area are reported to have lost their breaks and fallen into the pit never to be recovered.

Today, a Kenya Red Cross official joined three young men that have been retrieving the bodies from the pit making the process proceed faster and safer as the organisation secured each of them with climbing harnesses and makeshift floating pads.

Unlike before, the young men also wore face masks while scouring through the tons of garbage in search of the bodies as their counterparts held them from above with ropes.

Despite promising to support the process, county government officials were conspicuously absent from the site.

"For today, we can say the support we expected from the authorities and especially the County Government's disaster management was still lacking. Most of the items came from well-wishers including the Kenya Red Cross. We need the County to bring a crane that will help scour through the water-logged pit and sift dirt from possible bodies that might be floating herein," added Toure.

The retrievers said they have not lost hope in finding more bodies that will help prosecute the persons behind the killings despite the risks involved.

Peter Waweru, one of the retrievers who has been engaged in the exercise since it began, observed that the search exercise seems to be ending with the lack of any body parts retrieval today.

"We do not find pleasure in finding these bodies because we know what that means to affected families. However, we have committed ourselves to help as much as we can until the search is over, and that search may be called off soon going by what has happened today," he said.

So far the Directorate of Criminal Investigations have arrested two suspects, the main suspect Collins Jumaisi and another young man who detectives are interrogating as a possible witness in the matter.

"While you cannot entirely rely on evidence obtained via a confession, everything else adds up to what he said and we are certain that we are making good progress in this case," an official aware of the case told The Eastleigh Voice.

The exercise resumes tomorrow.