Questions linger as murdered baby Alvina Mutheu is finally buried
Stephen Mulinge and Catherine Musembi, parents of Alvina Mutheu, one of the two children found dead inside a car at the Athi River Police Station on July 16, 2020.
What you need to know:
- Alvina Mutheu, aged three, and her four-year-old friend Jackton Odhiambo were found dead in a towed car at Athi River Police Station, three weeks after their disappearance.
- The initial autopsy conducted on July 7 revealed the children died three to four weeks before their bodies were found on the backseat of a grey Toyota Belta.
- Though relieved to have buried Mutheu, the family said they still wanted to know what led to her demise.
Baby Alvina Mutheu’s body was finally released from the Chiromo Funeral Parlour on Friday, almost two months after her shocking death alongside her friend.
Mutheu, aged three, and four-year-old Jackton Odhiambo were found dead in a towed car at Athi River Police Station, on July 16, three weeks after their disappearance.
The initial autopsy conducted on July 7 revealed the children died three to four weeks before their bodies were found on the backseat of a grey Toyota Belta.
Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor declared the first post-mortem on the children’s bodies inconclusive.
“We could not establish the cause of the deaths because their bodies had decomposed and experienced a lot of deterioration. Massive tissue loss and maggot infestation hindered us from drawing a firm conclusion.”
Further analysis
Following this development, Dr Oduor forwarded samples from the bodies to the Government Chemist for analysis by a forensic entomologist.
Amid the government’s investigations, a process that was expected to take a maximum of four weeks, the bodies were kept at Chiromo.
On August 7, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DC) called the families and asked them to prepare to collect the bodies and the final report but this did not take place and they were asked to wait until August 10.
While on their way from Athi River to Chiromo, the families were informed of a hitch.
Exasperated by postponements and miscommunication, Mutheu’s parents decided to head to the DCI headquarters along Kiambu road.
“We got really tired of making calls inquiring about the progress of the investigations so we went to the DCI headquarters where we were told to conduct the burial of our baby and [obtain] the report from the government lab thereafter,” the girl’s father, Stephen Mulinge, told the Nation.
Unanswered questions
The family paid a bill of Sh21,500 before the body was released.
A short service, attended by the parents, a few relatives, friends and a pastor, was conducted at the funeral parlor before the group headed to the burial site in Masinga Constituency, Machakos County.
Though relieved to have buried Mutheu, the family said they still wanted to know what led to her demise.
“It is good that they let us have the body after so long. However, we still need the government’s report to know what killed our daughter. I wonder how they can conduct investigations without any clues from the forensic entomologist,” said Mutheu’s mother, Catherine Musembi.
The officer handling the case declined to comment when reached by the Nation for a report on the progress of the case.
