The cat ate your brother’s eyes, relatives told

Relatives of an accident victim were shocked to find his eyes and left ear missing when they went to identify his body at Nairobi’s City mortuary.

Eric Kilel was killed instantly when he was hit by a car on Jogoo Road on Friday, and, according to his brothers, the body was intact when it was taken to the mortuary.

But on Monday, they were given conflicting explanations on the missing body parts of the 35-year-old Kenya Power and Lighting employee.

First, mortuary attendants said the body arrived without the parts and then changed their story and said they had been eaten by cats and rats.

On Tuesday, crime detectives moved in to investigate the matter as two people arrested on Monday with body parts were charged in a Kibera court.

There are fears that those who removed the eyes and ear were part of a syndicate trafficking in human body parts. Mr Kilel was said to have been on his way to the office in Donholm when he was killed in the accident.

According to police records, the accident was reported at Makongeni Police Station and the body taken to the City Mortuary to await identification.

“I positively identified him, but I was shocked to note that his eyes and left ear were missing,” Paul Kilel, an elder brother of the accident victim, said on Tuesday.

Richard, another brother, dismissed the claim that the missing parts could have been eaten by animals.

“The ear was cleanly removed and the eye sockets were empty,” he said as he traced his finger around his ear to illustrate.

All other body parts, including the genitals, were intact.

According to Paul, who worked with the victim at the KPLC Donholm office, his brother was in a jovial mood when they last met on Friday.

“I waved at him before my shift ended at 4pm and left for home,” Paul said.

However, when he reported to work on Monday morning, Eric’s supervisor informed him that a KPLC worker had been hit along Jogoo Road on Friday and they accompanied him to City Mortuary to identify the body.

Questions on the missing body parts yielded what the Kilel’s term as ‘unsatisfactory’ answers.

“On Monday the mortuary attendants said that the body arrived without the eyes and ears. Today they said that cats and rats are to blame,” Richard said.

According to his brothers, Eric, father of three, lived alone in Outer Ring estate. His wife and children live in their rural home in Bureti.

CID officers from Kilimani Police Station arrived at the mortuary to question staff.

However, officials at the mortuary denied claims that there was trafficking of human body parts at the facility run by Nairobi City Council.

Mr Sammy Nyongesa, the mortuary’s senior funeral superintendent, described the removal of body parts from corpses as ‘uncouth’ and against African culture.

“It’s likely to attract a curse. We are employed to give quality service to the public,” he added.

According to Mr Nyongesa, it is strange to have a corpse with missing body parts unless it arrived in such a state, which is a police case.

“A detailed report is done at the police station once an unidentified body is found,” said Mr Nyongesa, who has served at the City Mortuary for two decades.