Nicholas Okero Okite, the local diver who has been retrieving unknown dead bodies from River Yala, has gone into hiding following threats of arrest by the government.
In a phone interview the Star, Okero said he didn't sleep at home last night after a police officer in Yala told him the state is not happy with him, warned him to be more careful with his life.
"I was called by a Directorate of Criminal Investigations officer in Yala that the homicide boss wanted to meet me. The boss was to pay me Sh5,000 for the latest body that I retrieved last Friday. They have been paying that amount for some time," he said.
"Upon arriving at the DCI office in Yala, I was detained from 8am to around 4:30pm and my phone confiscated. I was not even allowed to smoke a cigarette," he added.
Okero says the homicide officer became hostile and forced him to record a statement, explaining his job.
"He claimed that I was being suspected of hiding bodies in Ndanu falls. They insisted that I record a statement explaining my role in the dead bodies mystery. It is then that one police officer confided in me on threats to my life that I decided to go into hiding," Okero told the Star.
Okero explains that the water level in River Yala has been subsiding lately thus exposing more bodies trapped between rocks.
"I was intimidated and I am not happy," he added.
According to Okero, a meeting of about 15 people was held at the the DCI offices in Yala during his detention.
The attendees of the meeting included the area chief, his assistant and homicide officials.
Haki Africa in a statement said that it is through their intervention that Okero was released.
The lobby group has since vowed to hold DCI responsible should anything happen to Okero.
"Yesterday, Haki Africa learnt that Okero was summoned by the police in Yala in the pretext of being offered a job by the state for his good work."
"However, on reaching the station, he was detained and threatened. His phone was also confiscated," the lobby said on Thursday.
Okero is the only person who relatives of missing persons and the police in Yala have been depending on to retrieve the decomposing bodies.
So far, Okero has retrieved 26 bodies, the latest one being on Friday last week.
Last week, Okero had complained to the Star that the police in Yala were harassing him over things he had little knowledge of.
Okero, would be seen avoiding and camouflaging from the police at the Yala subcounty hospital mortuary whenever they approached and seemed comfortable only in the presence of Haki Africa officials.
Gem subcounty police commander Chacha Mwita told the Star over the phone that he had no information about Okero's predicament and would comment on it once he has gathered sufficient information.
In the meantime, Chacha indicated that the police have no issue, at all, to pick on Okero.
When he spoke to the Star last week, he had speculated that "the police are on him because he is the person who revealed the mystery by fishing out the bodies from where they were dumped, something that is an egg on the face of the State."
