Kenya’s River Yala: Mystery and heartbreak of the dead bodies
President William Ruto announced today that families of people whose bodies were recovered from River Yala will be included in the government’s compensation programme for victims of human rights violations.
Ruto said the compensation would also cover other victims of extrajudicial disappearances, expanding the scope of the programme beyond those affected during protests and demonstrations.
Ruto said the compensation programme was part of the late former Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s pursuit of electoral justice.
“Raila was a fighter. He pushed hard. He pushed hard to extend the boundaries of our democracy,” Ruto said.
He said Raila’s pursuit of electoral justice had contributed to the establishment of the compensation programme for victims of protests.
“We set aside Sh2 billion and hundreds of families have already been paid, and we will not stop until every verified victim receives justice,” Ruto said.
“This compensation will extend to the families of the many whose bodies were recovered here in River Yala and other victims of extrajudicial disappearance,” he said.
Ruto’s announcement comes as the government continues to implement the compensation programme for victims of human rights violations linked to demonstrations and public protests.
The Yala River mass murders and dumping of bodies was done under the supervision of President Uhuru Kenyatta and the operation was carried by his then Security Chief who is now his chosen candidate to take the Kenya presidency from William Ruto in 2027.
Based on his record of human rights abuses and killing people for his boss, if Matiang’i takes over the presidency in 2027, he will need to expand Yala River to take more bodies.
The poor Yala folks living near the river will need a full army of body lifters to drag dead bodies out of the river and ask Uhuru and Matiang’i to build new burying grounds for their victims and not just have them dumped in the local mortuaries and not even identified since the murdered Kenyans buried down their last time were from all over the country.
Yala River which is what we call it as residents of Siaya and not River Yala is the place you have to cross when you come from Bondo Town where me and my family live when going to Siaya Town which is now the headquarters of Siaya County.
Yala River when you look below the bridge is packed with stones and big rocks all over and flows furiously to Lake Victoria as the main feeding water system for that Lake which takes water all across Africa through Sudan to Egypt and the world famous River Nile. Good Lord.
Now to think that some people are pulling dead bodies out of there is tough to comprehend but the local folks there did just that as shocked as they were with the situation.
Irene Waheto’s family has been searching for her brother since he went missing in November 2019
“I have just seen my brother’s face. Our faces are alike, even the mouth. I have also seen the legs, those are my brother’s. I have no doubt it’s him.”
A distressed Irene Waheto has just stepped out of the hospital mortuary in Yala, western Kenya.
At least 19 unclaimed bodies have been waiting for identification. They were retrieved over the past two years from the nearby River Yala in different stages of decomposition.
Ms Waheto is making frantic calls to her family in Nyeri, a town nearly 300km (185 miles) to the east.
“It is Ndirangu, I am sure it is him,” she cries down the phone.
But how his body ended up in a river so far from home is not clear.
Ms. Waheto told the BBC reporter that her brother went missing in November last 2019 while travelling from the capital, Nairobi, to Nakuru – but that is nearly 200km from where his body was found.
Since then her family has been searching police stations and mortuaries near the two cities – but not in this more remote part of western Kenya.
The thought of looking here came when, on Monday, two human rights activists said that bodies that had been found in the River Yala in recent months were still in the mortuary.
Ms. Waheto, who had been living nearby since getting married more than a decade ago, was told to go to Yala mortuary just to check. But it seemed implausible that her brother would be here, miles away from where he was last seen.
But there he was.
A number of unidentified corpses retrieved from the river are still at the mortuary
Ms. Waheto sits on the grass and starts wailing, emitting a sound that sends shivers through everyone around her.
She is not the only person searching for a missing relative and not the only one baffled by how their body ended up in Yala.
Ben Chepkwony travelled over 100km looking for his brother, Philemon, who he says went missing last month somewhere on the road between Nairobi and Nakuru.
His remains were also discovered among the bodies retrieved from the River Yala, and Mr Chepkwony is inconsolable.
“I don’t know who is killing these people and dropping them [here],” he says with long pauses and deep breaths between the sentences.
“This is not a democratic Kenya we wish to live in. I am so frustrated with this country. And I will not accept it at all.”
Human Rights Watch Claims Kenya Is Reluctant To Investigate Bodies Dump In Infamous River Yala
Human Rights Watch has indicated in its 2023 report that Kenyan authorities have failed to investigate bodies that were found dumped in River Yala in, Western part of the country.
The US-based organization argued that despite the pressure from human rights activists and the general public, the government of Kenya is yet to unravel the people behind the murders purported to be extrajudicial killings.
“A Nairobi-based activists’ protection organization said that some of the community leaders who had been at the forefront of bringing the issue to public attention were threatened by people who identified themselves as police,” said the human rights group.
River Yala grabbed global news headlines in 2022 after being discovered as a dumping site for dead bodies. HAKI Africa, a human rights organization, disclosed the waterway’s horrific discovery.
By September 2022, 39 bodies had been retrieved from the river. Some of the bodies were those of people who had gone missing. However, the number jumped to 40 following the discovery of a body of an unknown man on January 5, 2023.
The body, which appeared to be strongly built and of medium height, had severe slashes on the shoulder, and a limb had nearly been severed, according to the local authorities.
Some of the bodies were discovered with ropes still wrapped around their necks, and some of their fingers were either missing or severely charred, implying the killers were attempting to conceal their identities.
The state in which of some of the bodies recovered from the river were found also raises questions.
According to the diver who got them out, some had been pushed into sacks, which had then been sewn up. Others had polythene bags over their heads – all signs of torture and murder, according to Haki Africa.
Matiang’i: The ghosts of Yala River don’t haunt me
Former Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i has dismissed claims that the discovery of mutilated bodies in and around River Yala troubles his mind.
Matiang’i said he stands ready to account for his role while in office and supports calls for a public inquest into the killings.
Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV, Matiang’i, now a presidential hopeful under the Jubilee Party, insisted that he has nothing to hide regarding the disturbing incidents that shocked the nation between 2021 and 2023.
“The ghosts of Yala River don’t haunt me,” Matiang’i said, pushing back against persistent questions about the government’s handling of the matter during his tenure as Interior CS.
“This is a matter I like explaining every time an opportunity arises.”
Matiang’i acknowledged the seriousness of the situation but defended the actions taken by the government at the time, saying due process was followed through the appropriate security channels.
“In every docket in government, a moment comes when a mistake is committed,” he said. “Bodies were found in River Yala, and we acted very responsibly as a government. The matter came to the National Security Council.”
According to Matiang’i, the government sought guidance from top law enforcement agencies, including the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and the Inspector General of Police.
“We asked police officers if we should open an inquest into this matter, but they told us the DCI and the IG were handling it,” he said.
He explained that a formal inquest is typically opened when critical facts are missing, but in the River Yala case, authorities had physical evidence that could aid investigations.
“You open an inquest when you have so many material facts away from you. In this case, we had bodies, meaning we could go and take fingerprints, trace identities, find families, and reconstruct movements as investigations continued,” he said.
“It is a crime that ought to be investigated to its furthest end, and those involved brought to book. If it includes me, I am ready to be held to account,” he said.
Many of the bodies showed signs of torture, including head injuries, disfigurement, and in some cases, faces covered with plastic bags.
The real nightmare for the country right now is that Kenya has brilliant young politicians rising to the national stage to try to win the presidency in 2027 and I am talking about the likes of Edwin Sifuna and Ndindi Nyoro and these young heroes for Kenyans have already been swallowed in the Uhuru Kenyatta doghouse and now Fred Matiang’i the chief murderer of River Yala victims is their comrade to take power.
How does that work?
Could it ever be possible for a rising political star like Edwin Sifuna who champions human rights for Kenyans and making sure the Kenya constitution is the guiding principle in the governance of the country to actually demand that the tragic River Yala murders by the state under Uhuru and Matiang’i be investigated and Kenyans are told the truth as the perpetrators are held accountable?
No, that is not possible and that is a big part of the human rights abuse problem Kenya faces today. Every Kenyan aspiring politician for national leadership will always support their buddies who have murdered even thousands of Kenyans as long as those killers back them for political leadership in the country.
That is not just sad. It is a national tragedy Kenya faces as a country and they will figure out how to overcome that pretty soon because Kenyans are very smart on how they handle these situations and our history as a country bears testament to that fact.
Adongo Ogony is a Human Rights Activist and a Writer who lives in Toronto, Canada
