After more than five months of agony and searching for the body of a high school teacher who allegedly plunged himself in Kipkaren river in Murrum village, Lugari sub location, Lugari sub county, finally the body has been found.
The body of John Mukhwana Murunga who until his death was a teacher at Nalutili secondary school in Bungoma was discovered by Mr. Joel Juma Webo who was grazing animals near the river on Tuesday evening.
According to Mr. Juma, he saw an object floating on the water down the river before he decided to follow it and on looking keenly he discovered it was a human body.
He said later the body got stuck in between rocks near the bank of the river before he called his brothers who rushed to the scene with ropes and managed to tie the badly mutilated body to prevent it from further being washed away. The body had several parts missing including the head, feet among others.
Police officers and family members were called to the scene where the deceased’s wife Ms. Josephine Kanini could identify the body to be that of her missing husband from the under cloth that was still on his body.
According to Kanini, her husband left their home at Lumama village in Lugari sub location on Tuesday 11th August, 2020 but never returned. She said her husband was a drunkard and she thought he had gone for a drinking spree as usual but she became worried after he failed to return home since he wasn’t used to sleeping outside.
She later informed other family members from Kabras in Malava Sub County who came and joined her in search for him in various brewing dens unsuccessfully.
After five days of searching, she received information that the husband who was psychotic had been overheard by his fellow drunkards threatening to throw himself in the river.
Working on the information they managed to trace boys who allegedly witnessed the teacher plunging himself in the river.
“According to how the boys described him, confirmed that he was the one, and that is how we knew that he had drowned,” said Kanini.
Since august last year family members, residents, local and expert divers camped by the river for about two months searching for the body unsuccessfully and later gave up before being discovered 165 days later.
The body was removed by officers from Lumakanda police station and taken to Kimbilio mortuary as the family began burial arrangements.