Police officers have launched a manhunt for lawyers of a family whose kin was hurriedly buried after succumbing to Covid-19.
According to a report by Daily Nation, the lawyers are part of a long contact list being traced by the state of people who came in contact with the family that is under quarantine.
Confirming the order, Siaya County Police Commander Francis Kooli noted that any individual who was in close contact with the family of the late James Onyango would be placed under quarantine as per the state's directive.
The family of the victim had filed a case in the week beginning Monday, April 13, at the High Court seeking to have the body of the deceased exhumed for a proper burial.
Kooli, however, noted that the manhunt for the lawyers was not influenced by the case which had been filed by Onyango's son and sister.
In a series of tweets shared on Sunday, April 19, Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Nelson Havi disclosed that the lawyers to the family had increasingly received threats as the hearing of the case, set for Friday, April 24, drew closer.
The lawyer pointed out that health departments in Siaya and Kisumu had threatened the advocates with forced quarantine in what he claimed was an attempt to scuttle the hearing.
"James Oyugi’s family sued the Ministry of Health (MOH) protesting his undignified, midnight, shallow grave burial. MoH officers in Kisumu and Siaya have resorted to threatening advocates for the family and LSK with forced quarantine to defeat the hearing scheduled for Friday, April 24. This is untenable.
"The threats against our advocates are disturbing. A week ago, the Government Printer falsified a Gazette Notice on the period of the curfew and implicated LSK CEO and advocate for the discrepancy. Justice Weldon Korir reprimanded the state but similar misconduct continues unabated," stated Havi.
The hurried burial of the Kenya Ports Authority (KPA) employee on the morning of Sunday, April 12, caused a nationwide uproar.
A police report confirmed that the man had travelled from Mombasa on Sunday, April 5, accompanied by his wife and two children before he passed away on Friday, April 10, at around 8.00 p.m.
The employee and his family were involved in a minor accident while travelling to their country home along the Kericho-Kisumu highway necessitating the police to tow his car to Awasi Police Station.
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