Officials did not want to disclose the information to the media during Thursday’s chaotic identification process.
The families of those killed in the Al Shabaab attack on the DusitD2 Hotel faced a new ordeal as they waited in the sweltering heat to identify their relatives at Nairobi’s Chiromo Mortuary amid delayed and scanty information from Kenyan authorities, the Daily Nation reported on Friday.
Thursday’s identification process was conducted by the Kenyan Red Cross and the National Disaster Management Unit, with the list of missing persons a guarded secret as officials did not want to disclose information to the media.
Prior to the identification of the bodies, the families were counselled for eight hours before being permitted to view the dead, most of whom bore gunshot wounds.
One family member said officials had confused his name with that of another victim of the attack, and his family had been given two bodies to identify in the process.
Other families were asked to produce photos of their loved ones, even after sharing details of the missing persons with the Red Cross the day before. Others were asked to return to the mortuary on Friday after being prevented from identifying their loved ones on Thursday.
The media has complained that attempts to get official information from government officials have been futile.
Source: The Citizen
