Shioso: Yala River probe misreported

Last week, I was dispatched to Yala by the Inspector General of Police to join a strong team of DCI forensic homicide detectives endeavouring to understand and unravel a sad situation, where a number of dead bodies had been spotted and retrieved from a section of River Yala.

My visit was purposed also to have a front-row seat during the ongoing investigative process and share a concrete brief with seniors and the general public.

During my visit, I first paid a call to the local OCPD in his office, who shared a formal detailed brief. I also had an interaction with officers involved in the preliminary investigations at the station. They were all distraught, stressed and visibly affected. No wonder occupational hazards of policing contribute greatly to police stress.

Also, I was taken around River Yala, specifically those spots where the bodies had been cited and retrieved from. Most of the sites are rocky, hence offer a natural obstruction to floating objects, dead bodies inclusive.

Next was a visit to Yala Subcounty Mortuary, the real scene of investigation. It was one of those distressing places that distinguish those who serve with distinction and those who simply work well. Standing side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder, in the small, crowded morgue with decomposing bodies and without basic amenities, was a focused team of professionals in white dust coats busily performing autopsies on the 23 unaccounted bodies, the subject matter of the investigation.

A strong multidisciplinary team of pathologists were in their element, investigating the corpses. DCI forensic detectives, too, were going through their motions, documenting the bodies and making appropriate requests for specimens to be collected and preserved for further analysis. Government chemists’ scientists, too, were onsite, collecting DNA profiles to aid in later identifications.

Police psychologists and counsellors equally were busy within their tent, offering comfort to visiting distraught families desperate to identify their missing kin. It was one busy site, though professionally run and synchronised to detail.

It was, therefore, tough work before the experts. And all those on the multidisciplinary multi-agency team were engaged in work well beyond their normal call of duty.

Yet in all this, one name continued to stick out from the various discussions I had: Okero Okite.

Okero is a kind of a local hero, maybe folklore, in Yala. The diver is revered not only in the community but also by the local police. His role in the whole investigations into unaccounted bodies cannot be underestimated or wished away. Without Okero, chances are it could be a different situation by now.

Talking to the OCPD, Charles Chacha, the head of DCI homicide investigations, Nyagutho, and the lead pathologist, Dr Johansen Oduor, it was very apparent Okero Okite, the local River Yala diver, is simply a godsend.

Whenever a body is sited within the waters of the river, more so in very hard-to-get-to spaces, Okero is always at hand to dive into the river, get to the decomposing body and retrieve it. For that, everybody respects and wants to keep him within arm’s length, including the police.

Okero Okite learned his trade from his father as a young boy. And over the years, he has perfected it to an expertise level. He is simply indispensable to the community and the police during dire situations as of now.

It is thus a surprise to National Police Service, especially OCPD Yala and his team of dedicated officers to see rumours being peddled around, suggesting bad blood between them and Okero.

Others continue to perpetuate this falsehood, implying that police had detained him and that he was fearing for his life.

This cannot be further from the truth. Okero is simply a local celebrity for the help he rendered to the government and his community and is celebrated as such. He is also on a first-name basis with the local police, who have his contact on speed dial.

It is well-known to the police that a few ‘outsiders’ with an interest in the investigation are burning the midnight oil to soil the cordial and mutual relations between Yala police, the community and specifically  Okero Okite, which has been built over the years. And their suspect motivation is not in the public interest or even in the interest of justice. It is simply to hold police in contempt and bad light.

What occasioned the current reporting of Okite’s arrest is a routine, brief interaction forensic detectives had with him as a witness to share his knowledge on his role in the matter as a body retriever. Even local police went through this standard procedure.

Therefore, such falsehood is simply meddling in an investigative process. It does not sit well for the ends of justice.

(Bruno Shioso, OGW, is the NPS director corporate communication/spokesperson).