Kitui Governor, Charity Ngilu, was on Tuesday, December 7, forced to intervene after families of the victims were engaged in an altercation.
Speaking to a local media outlet, Ngilu stated that the families were fighting over some of the bodies recovered from River Enziu.
The identification of the bodies had kicked off today, with families called upon to positively identify their kin. However, discord was witnessed after two families claimed the body of a child.
"One of the children whose parents came and claimed, there was also another parent who came and claimed," Ngilu stated.
Following the fracas, the Kitui County boss noted that the government, through the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI), would step in to sort out the identification dilemma.
Henceforth ,bodies that will be claimed by two or more families would have to be subjected to identification. Adults will be identified using finger prints while bodies of children would be subjected to a deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test.
"Children cannot go through taking their fingerprints because they don't have identification (IDs), those ones will do DNA and the doctors are on it," she reiterated.
This would mean that some of the families would have to wait for seven more days to pay final respects to their relatives.
Ngilu revealed that the national government would be supporting the families, however, the aide would only come when all the bodies had been identified.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Paul Maringa, confirmed that the government would take responsibility of building a bridge on Enziu River. The construction of the bridge will kick-off in January, 2022.
On December 4, a 62-seater bus plunged into River Enziu claiming the lives of 33 passengers on board. Passengers who survived the incident claimed that the driver was reluctant to drive across the make-shift bridge.
