Tears and pain as kin bury slain soldiers

Relatives and friends of three slain soldiers. (Photo: Bruno Mutunga/Standard)

Five bodies of soldiers killed by Al Shabaab terrorists in a raid at their Kulbiyow base in southern Somalia were airlifted to Isiolo and Marsabit.

A Kenya Air Force plane ferried the bodies of the slain Kenya Defence Forces soldiers to Isiolo Airport yesterday.

Private Ido Kuno Ido and Corporal Abdalla Aziz were buried at a cemetery in Isiolo town.

The body of another soldier identified as Mohammed Konchora, 23, was taken to Merti's remote Korbesa village where he was interred after Islamic 1pm prayers.

Two others were taken to Marsabit.

In Isiolo town, residents joined leaders and relatives of the fallen soldiers where they asked the Government to recall Kenyan troops from the volatile Somalia.

 

Isiolo Lands Executive Ahmed Shone who is a family member and former teacher of Ido at Garba-Tula High accompanied Ido's body.

Ido, who completed his secondary education at Garba-Tula High School in 2006 where he was a poet, was based in Mariakani.

Meanwhile, several families at the Coast are mourning the death of relatives killed in Friday's terrorist raid on a KDF in southern Somalia.

Relatives reported the death of their kin in Mazeras, Kaloleni and Ganze in Kilifi County.

One of the fallen soldiers was buried at Madogo in Tana River county.

Sergeant Kassim Darga Roba of the 15 Kenya Rifles at Mariakani in Kilifi was interred in a muslim cemetery at Madogo sub-county in Tana River after a brief religious ceremony.

Kassim's body was brought to his distraught family early yesterday from Nairobi where it had been preserved at the Forces Memorial Hospital.

Some reports suggested the soldier was gravely injured in a rocket attack and died at the hospital.

In Kauma location of Kilifi, two families were in mourning after they were summoned to the Mariakani Barracks to receive the grim news of the death of two soldiers who are related.