Family buries sisters killed in station attack
Ramla Abdirahman Hussein, one of the girls killed after attacking a police station in Mombasa on September 11. She and her sister were buried on September 24, 2016. PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- The two graves that the family had dug earlier had been used after police declined to release their bodies insisting on a postmortem.
- Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor conducted an internal autopsy in presence of family members.
Two among the three women killed during terrorist raid on Mombasa's Central Police Station on September 11 were finally buried Saturday evening.
Bodies of the two sisters, Ramla Abdirahman Hussein (19) and Maimuna Abdirahman (22), were buried at Manyimbo Muslim Cemetery in Tudor at around 7pm.
They were buried in one big grave but in separate chambers.
This is permissible in Islam especially during mass burial in case of epidemic or lack of space within the cemetery area, among other reasons.
The two graves that the family had dug earlier had been used after police declined to release their bodies insisting on a postmortem.
Muslim prayer for the dead was conducted at Masjid Khayrat in Kiziwi, Tudor area, before the bodies were taken to the graveyard, a few metres from the mosque.
The bodies were removed from Coast General Hospital mortuary at around 5pm and taken to a small mosque within Manyimbo Muslim Cemetery where they were washed (Ghusl) before being wrapped with plain white cloth (Kafan) by women from their family.
The women, including their mother and sisters, were the first to pay their last respects before the men arrived and carried the bodies to the mosque for Muslim funeral prayers (Salat al Janazah), paving way for burial.
Chief government pathologist Johansen Oduor conducted an internal autopsy in presence of family members led by their father, Mr Abdirahman Hussein, before releasing them.
Sources privy to the autopsy told Nation that a bullet was removed from one body which had four gunshot injuries to the chest, head and arms.
The other had extensive burns, which the pathologist concluded was the cause of death.
The postmortem was done in absence of representatives of human rights organisations who on Friday had protested an earlier autopsy done through physical observation of the two bodies.
“The bullet was handed over to an investigating police officer who was present,” said the source on condition of anonymity.
The agencies included Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR), Independent Medico-legal Unit (IMLU), Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and Muslim for Human Rights (Muhuri).
The body of Tasnim Yakub Abdullahi Farah is still unclaimed at Coast General Hospital mortuary.
Some three women said to be her immediate family members were arrested arraigned in court over claims of hosting a terrorist.
