Two bodies of infants were on Saturday retrieved at Korogocho section of Nairobi River by a group working under Governor Mike Sonko's Ng’arisha Jiji Initiative.
The bodies believed to be twins, were found wrapped in a polythene bag, raising the total number of bodies retrieved from the water body to eight since the sanitation exercise commenced.
“Today morning, as my team was preparing to start cleaning part of the Nairobi River in Korogocho, we found two bodies of kids wrapped in a polythene bag. We believe the two children must be twins,” said Fredrick Okinda, the chairperson of the Komb-Green Solutions that leads the exercise in the area.
He said one of the children was breathing faintly, but succumbed before they could rush to the nearest hospital.
Expressing the concern about the increasing number of infants' bodies being collected, Okinda said the dumped bodies could be a result of covert illegal abortion procedures by unregistered clinics in the sprawling slum.
“We believe that some of these unregistered clinics have been procuring abortions and dumping the dead bodies in the river,” he said, urging the national government to intervene.
Four bodies of adults have been retrieved from the river in addition to the now eight infants since the launch of the initiative late last year by the governor.
Last week, Sonko asked the police to move swiftly and investigate mysterious instances of dead bodies being retrieved from the rivers in Nairobi.
The Ngarisha Jiji Initiative entails unblocking the sewer lines, clearing mounds of garbage, landscaping (beautification) and promoting responsible garbage disposal.
The clean-up is also focused on restoring Nairobi River and its tributaries including Ngong, Mathare, Mbagathi, Kirichwa Kubwa and Kirichwa Ndogo among others.