BY RUSHDIE OUDIA
SIAYA, KENYA: A body of a university lecturer was found floating on River Yala in Siaya County, more than week after she went missing.
Pamela Atieno, 50, wife to Dr Javan Kouko, top Western Region Radiologist was found nine days after she went missing.
According to the Kouko, his wife, was said to have left Kisumu and went to Yala where she parked her car at Yala Resort Hotel.
Atieno, a lecturer at Maseno University afterwards boarded a motorcycle towards River Yala and did not pay the motorcycle operator.
“She told the motorcyclist to come after few minutes where she would pay for a return trip too,” said Kouko.
Sources close to the family told the Standard Atieno was about to clear her PhD and apparently left a note indicating where her body should be searched.
Kouko saw her wife last on December 18 when they had breakfast at 8am before leaving an hour later for Maseno.
She left Maseno at around noon for Yala where the police found her Toyota Corolla Saloon 110 car parked.
Kouko tried calling her that evening when she did not return but her phone did not go through. The husband went to Maseno police station where they were told it was too early to report a missing person.
On Christmas Eve, there were clear leads after the car was found without any signs of an accident or damage on the auto mobile.
She is said to have gone to Ndalo falls, a beautiful scene where people visit in Yala. According to residents, many people usually board motorcycles to take them there to view the scenery.
This is the place where the deceased is said to have lost her life. They carried out a search in the water where they retrieved the body after a while.
Kouko said the post-mortem results showed that Atieno had drowned. “The results were shocking and sad but shown she was well aware of what she was doing,” he said.
He said for the 23 years he had married the deceased, he could not understand why she took her life. The couple have three biological children and an adopted one.
“The PhD programme was stressing her but I do not still understand why she took her life,” said Dr Kouko. The husband revealed that the deceased was working on a programme involving immunity to malaria and insect treated bed nets.
Maseno University Public Relations Officer Director Jasper Otieno confirmed that Atieno is one of their staff in the department of zoology.
Ben Onyor, a brother, to the deceased, described her sister as loving, caring, neat and hardworking.
“She was easily approachable and could counsel many people,” said Onyor.
Her husband described the deceased as loving, and one that was humble.
Her body is currently lying at the Nyanza Provincial Hospital Mortuary.
roudia@standardmedia.co.ke
