“When we went to the Kakamega County General Hospital mortuary to view the bodies, we discovered they looked normal. When we asked the mortuary attendants if they drained the water from their stomachs they denied it,” he said.
“The mortuary attendants were equally surprised at the turn of events. Were these killed before their bodies were thrown inside the water?”
Osere said that KWS owes the families an explanation as to who ordered the scouts to swing across the river in pursuit of the sand harvesters.
“We want them to tell us who was in charge of the patrol. How comes that only the scouts went into the waters and not the rangers who are more experienced,” he added.
The families are also questioning how the drowning occurred at 10am, and the bodies were received at the mortuary, at 6pm
Junior KWS officers told the families during a meeting in Kakamega on Wednesday that they were part of a seven-man team that included three KWS rangers who were on normal patrol in the forest.
A junior officer who declined to be named said that the seven came across illegal sand harvesters who swam across the river.
“Four officers then jumped into the river in pursuit of the fleeing sand harvesters but they were overpowered by raging waters and drowned,” he said. One scout was saved.
The families will meet senior KWS management after the post-mortem results are out.
Edited by Kiilu Damaris
