mysterious death of Dandora Activist Caroline Mwatha continues to elicit various reactions among Kenyans with many of them already refuting a police report that indicates that Caroline died because of an abortion gone wrong.
Caroline’s family have also dismissed the police report and are in fact demanding for a more thorough investigation.
Caroline worked for Dandora Community Justice Centre, a human rights lobby that fights against extrajudicial killings, police brutality and enforced disappearances. It has been documenting police executions in the estate and its environs.
Many therefore believe that it is the nature of her work that led her to her early grave and that the abortion theory has been made up just to cover up the whole murder thing.
Caroline’s father Stanslaus Mbai said the police’s narrative was “hollow, nondescript and not true”. He spoke at City Mortuary, where they camped to wait for a postmortem.
“Saying that Caro died from an abortion operation gone wrong is hogwash. We’ve been with her and we know that she was not pregnant,” Mbai said.
Husband Joshua Ochieng’ expressed dismay at the allegations, saying the abortion theory could not hold.
“If she was supposedly aborting for fear of ruining her marriage, why would she wait to do that after five months?” he asked. “Why didn’t she do it in the first month or two or even less?”
Mbai questioned the credibility of the records at the morgue. He said his family and friends had visited the morgue and conducted a thorough search from February 8 but did not find the body. They also visited other mortuaries.
“We were here on February 8 and 9 but did not find her. We asked about Caroline. If there was a body by the name Caroline, we could have been shown so we identify her,” the father of four said.
The mortuary attendants had explained on Tuesday that a woman only identified as Grace took the activist’s body to the facility on February 7.
Asked on Tuesday to disclose the attendant who was in charge, they said the staff had taken leave.
Well, it seems like the investigative agencies still got a lot of work to do as many questions that still need answers keep popping up.