Two of three bodies dumped in River Yala retrieved

Two of the three unknown bodies which had been spotted decomposing in River Yala last Friday were retrieved on Sunday.

One body was not found as it believed to have been washed downstream by water.

The operation was led by local diver Nicholas Okero and the local police.

The bodies have been taken to Yala Subcounty Hospital Mortuary.

The retrieval process started early morning and lasted six hours due to the tough terrain and the dangerously raging waters of the river.

Worth noting, downstream, were the Jina village women and children who continued trooping to the river to fetch water for domestic use from the same river.

Among them was a girl, named Abigael.

According to her, the river is the only source of the water that they drink and use for other domestic purposes.

Although she was disgusted on seeing Okero wade through the water with the two bodies, she was hesitant to pour out the water that she had fetched.

"Pouring this water would be a waste of time because I have no alternative," Abigael said.

She called on whoever is behind the killing and dumping of dead people into the river to stop the habit.

Abigael told the Star that their dependence on the river is high during the January-February dry-spell that had engulfed the region.

January and February are the months when majority of the unknown bodies were found rotting in the river and retrieved.

Once at home, the water is hardly boiled or treated, Abigael revealed.

"Most of the time we lack water treatment chemicals or time to boil the water."

Abigael noted that there is always no way women and girls who wash clothes and utensils at the river bank treat the water before drinking.

"How can someone washing by the riverside tell thirst to wait so that they can treat that water first?" Abigael posed.

For Samuel Amodha, the cattle herder who spotted the three bodies, river Yala is the place for watering his livestock.

He also drinks it raw and washes his clothes in the river.

Amodha is now afraid that he may contract strange illnesses due to the dead human beings being dumped in it.

River Yala drains its water into Lake Victoria, serving hundreds of families up stream.

The Siaya Bondo Water and Sanitation Company (SIBOWASCO) also depends on the water from the river to pump into homes, institutions and offices in Bondo and Siaya towns and their environs.

SIBOWASCO, however, purifies and treats the water before supply.

Rights activists Fredrick Ojiro argues that it is time the government became serious on matters climate justice.

He said climate justice requires the protection and adaptation of rivers.

"You cannot talk about climate justice if you are the same government responsible for the protection of humans and rivers but glossing over the dumping of bodies that are now rotting in this river," he said.