Sombre mood at Chiromo Mortuary as families receive bodies of Garissa University massacre

Nairobi, Kenya: There was a sombre mood Friday at Chiromo Mortuary as families to students of Garissa University College streamed in their hundreds for either positive or negative confirmations.

Twenty bodies had been brought to the facility.

A busy day at Chiromo, we give you account of the events as we covered them.

Early morning, Red Cross had set an information centre. Families stream in to register.

Some minutes to 10am: A Red Cross official briefs the anxious family members, tells them the Garissa University dean of students, Kweya Opande is in the morgue identifying the 20 bodies.

He adds that they will photograph the bodies and then project them on a television screen for identification.

10.30am: Kenya Red Cross Secretary General Abbas Gullet appears. He tells us most of the bodies are still in Garissa being fingerprinted and forensics performed before being airlifted to the Wilson Airport.

We talk to Paul Musiria. His brother Joash Obare was a third year Bachelor of Arts student. They last spoke Wednesday night.

“On Thursday, I was at work  at around 9am when I received a call from home, Kisii. I immediately called him, he was mteja. He still is. Yesterday I went to Kenyatta National Hospital, he is not among the survivors.”

Then we meet Pastor Edward Muturi from Muran’ga County. He is the guardian to Lucy Wanjiku, a sister in law he has educated since secondary school following her father’s death in 2008. 

“She was in third year, pursuing a Bachelors of Commerce.” They last communicated via a text message on Monday, March 30 at 10.08am.

11.45am:Opande starts calling names on a loudspeaker. The ones called immediately start wailing. There is a misunderstanding, they think the bodies of their kin has been identified.

However, they need to queue, and enter a room in the morgue and view the photographs. The families go in, some identify their kin and come out moaning.

Counselors are in handy.

Muturi does not find Waithera’s body. We speak to Michael Musula who has identified his brother Peter Masinde, a police officer who died on the line of duty aged 29.  Other family mebers wail uncontrollably.

1430h: Dr Stephen Wahome of Psychological Health Services who is co-ordinating the psychosocial support services announces that 48 bodies have arrived.

1500h: Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims Secretary General Adan Wachu chokes in tears as he addresses the press.

1535h: 14 bodies arrive in two ambulances. Ten minutes later, a police truck follows with 15 bodies.
1600h: We leave the mortuary.

1803h: Muturi calls saying his kin Waithera is not in the list of the 534 survivors. We wish him, and all affected God’s mercies.