- Chief Government Pathologist, Dr Johansen Odour, informed journalists that all 21 bodies had been successfully matched to their parents through DNA matching.
Image: FILE
The memorial service for the 21 boys who died at Hillside Endarasha Academy dormitory fire will be held next week on Wednesday, acting Central regional commissioner Pius Murugu has said.
Murugu told KNA that the interdenominational prayer service will be held at the Mweiga Stadium and thereafter the bodies will be released to the bereaved parents for burial.
“The Hillside Academy Fire Disaster Management Committee has settled for Wednesday next week as the day for the Memorial service for the 21 boys who died in the fire,” said Murugu.
Murugu has maintained that the government will foot all burial expenses for the affected families. He said that the committee will be meeting today, Friday 20th to firm up on the finer details of the service which will start in the morning hours.
During the meeting, the committee will also finalize the burial plans for the victims of the inferno with the Administrator revealing that the government will facilitate the families in transporting and burying their loved ones.
Earlier in the week, the acting Regional Commissioner revealed that a majority of the victims of the inferno hailed from the Kieni-East sub-county. Others hail from Nakuru, Nairobi, Embu and Meru counties. He said that at the end of the DNA matching process, the committee would release the names of the victims who died when their dormitory caught fire.
“The committee will hold another meeting to finalize the memorial service and burial arrangements because we expect the victims to be buried after the service,” he said.
Chief Government Pathologist, Dr Johansen Odour, informed journalists that all 21 bodies had been successfully matched to their parents through DNA matching.
“We have received DNA results of the 21 victims. From the results we have, it indicates that the students are children of the parents who match with all of the 21,” said Dr Oduor during a press briefing at the Naro Moru Level IV hospital.
Dr Oduor also informed journalists that the process of contacting the bereaved parents to hand over the remains had started. He said the process will be done by officers from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations alongside the Kenya Red Cross staff.
“We are now in the process of contacting the relatives. We have a team made of DCI and Red Cross so that we can have them come over and unite them with their loved ones a we are preparing for the next process of assisting them in how they are going to bury them,” he said.