Mombasa women killed in attack on police station buried

Relatives and friends carry one of the two bodies for burial at a Muslim Cemetery in Mombasa Island, Mombasa County. PHOTO: COURTESY/STANDARD

MOMBASA: Two of the women killed during a recent attack on a police station in Mombasa have been buried.

Ramla Abdulrahman Hussein and her sister Maimuna Abdulrahman Hussein were buried secretly on Saturday night in a ceremony only attended by family members and close friends.

However, the body of Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah remains unclaimed at the Coast General Hospital mortuary. They were killed after they attacked Central Police Station on September 11.

A postmortem examination on the bodies shows one woman died from extensive body burns and another from bullets wounds in her chest, forehead and limbs.

Hostile scouts and family members barred journalists from the ceremony. The bodies were buried in one grave after brief prayers at a local mosque.

The corpses were washed in accordance with Muslim rites and buried without much ceremony and mourners quickly dispersed around 8pm.

They were buried at Kiziwi Muslim Cemetery hours after Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor conducted postmortems on the bodies.

The first attempt to examine the bodies stalled on Friday after State officials and rights groups disagreed with the deceased's family which objected to the autopsy on religious grounds.

Yesterday, Dr Oduor told The Standard the family later agreed to the autopsy. "We talked to the father and we agreed to perform a minimum postmortem," he said.

He said the examination revealed four gunshot injuries in the head, chest and arm but that only one bullet was recovered (from the arm). The shots were fired from close range.

He said the second woman died exclusively from extensive burns. Oduor did not identify the bodies but The Standard has learnt that it was Ramla who died from the gunshots while her sister Maimuna burnt to death.

The findings are likely to spark controversy on how they died after initial police reports indicated they wore bullet proof vests.

Last week, grainy footage posted on social media showed Maimuna writhing in pain, trying to move on her knees with her hands raised up. She collapses, rolls over and tries to rise again as police watch from a distance.