Bodies of 21 APs killed in Kapedo bandit ambush arrive in Nairobi

NAIROBI, KENYA: There was a sombre mood at the Chiromo mortuary, Nairobi where the bodies of 21 APs who were killed in Kapedo on Friday were Sunday taken for preservation.

The bodies were driven by road to the mortuary after authorities said there was no bigger chopper to carry all of them.

They smelt badly when they were being offloaded from the police lorry while wrapped in white body bags at about 5 pm.

Senior AP officer Fred Mwei led other officers in receiving the bodies but there was no officer from regular police.

He said they were yet to inform the next of kin of all the affected officers but efforts to do so were ongoing.

“We can’t give you names of the slain officers because not all the next of kin have been informed. We are making efforts to inform them,” said Mwei.

He said they had accounted for all their officers who were involved in the operation last Friday.

It was an emotional event as the officers present offloaded the bodies.

Only two families had managed to arrive at the mortuary to identify their loved ones.

Constable Abdi Adan Maalim, 24 was among those who died in the botched operation. His family was at the mortuary to receive the body for burial but it was late by the time the lorry arrived.

Another family of Said Ali from Tana River was on the way to the mortuary. Some family members broke down wailing on viewing the bodies.

The family of Maalim said he just graduated from Administration Police Training College in Embakasi in April this year.

“It was his first posting and he had even not started to touch his salary. He sent a text on Friday saying they were headed for a tricky mission and it was until yesterday when we were informed of the death,” said a family member Abdi Ali.

He said they wanted to be given the body for burial in accordance with the islam tradition.

The officers were killed in an ambush by bandits on Friday afternoon and later robbed their guns and thousands of bullets.