Nairobi – A post-mortem exercise for the Yala River bodies is set to start on Wednesday after failing on Tuesday.

HAKI Africa chief executive Hussein Khalid told Capital News on Tuesday that the exercise could not start due to the unavailability of the government’s chief pathologist.

Khalid said at least 21 bodies had to undergo the process, stressing that the autopsy is expected to take four days.

On Tuesday, two more bodies were recovered from the Yala River a day after another body was recovered from the same location, bringing the number of bodies recovered on various dates to twenty-five.

“HAKI Africa can confirm that today, Tuesday 26th January 2022, two more bodies were recovered from the Yala River. DCI Detectives were present and the bodies were taken to the Sub County Hospital Mortuary of Yala,” HAKI Africa said in a statement.

The rights organization said it remained committed to following the case through to its conclusion to ensure the families get justice.

Khalid said that together with activist Boniface Mwangi, they held talks with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) homicide team to demand a speedy investigation into the matter which has angered Kenyans.

However, while rights groups have argued that all of the bodies recovered from the recovery were recently dumped, authorities have refuted the claims by insisting that the body count is a cumulative figure going back two years.

In a statement issued on January 22, Amnesty International Kenya said that the 21 bodies at Yala morgue and nine others buried in a mass grave were found over the past six months.

“All of the bodies found bear evidence of physical torture and drowning. The bodies had been reported to local police, but there was a lack of urgency or interest in investigating who killed these deceased, who throws them and why into the Yala River.. We are now deeply concerned that the hospital morgue plans to dispose of the 21 bodies by January 31, 2022,” said Irüngü Houghton, Executive Director of Amnesty InternationalKenya.

Houghton called on the National Assembly and the Senate to commission a joint parliamentary inquiry into the growing cases of kidnappings, enforced disappearances and dumping of bodies in different parts of the country.

“The Cabinet should ratify and implement the International Convention on the Protection of All Enforced Disappearances to strengthen domestic and international accountability,” he added.

Houghton further called for the creation of a missing and deceased persons database to preserve DNA and other evidence.

A week ago, police spokesman Bruno Shioso said a special DCI team had been dispatched to the scene to speed up the investigation into the incidents.

“Over the past two years, nineteen (19) incidents involving human bodies that were found abandoned in the Yala River have been reported to the National Police Service. This number represents a cumulative number of bodies over the period indicated contrary to media reports insinuating all the incidents are recent,” he said.

On Monday, Home Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiang’i urged members of the public to refrain from speculating on the matter until investigations are completed.