Police officers from Busia police station have exhumed a body from a home in Nabisiongo village Matayos constituency in Busia county after a family member believed to be dead and buried came back alive.
The family of Stephen Ogolla successfully obtained a court order to exhume the body his family members had picked from river Sio and buried it thinking it was his.
Several days later after the burial that took place in September 2020, Stephen resurfaced and sent shivers among family members and who ran away from him thinking he was a ghost.
He was later taken to Matayos police post before he was returned home although many people still believe he is a ghost, “It’s then that the family went to court to have the body buried in Stephen’s home exhumed and today we have the order to exhume it,” explains Nang’oma chief Hellen Ng’ombe who oversaw the exhumation exercise.
The body which had decomposed was taken to Busia county referral hospital mortuary as the chief appealed to members of the public whose relatives are missing to visit the morgue and identify the body through DNA.
Meanwhile according to Ogolla’s clan head Dismas Dika, they must perform some rituals including slaughtering a goat and a chicken where Ogolla will have to step in the blood before he is allowed back into his home, “While stepping in the blood he will have to state that he is not dead and he is not associated in anyway with the person who was buried in his home.”
Ogolla says he feel relieved after the body was exhumed, explaining the challenges of rejection and stigma he has gone through since he came back from Port Victoria where he went fishing without telling his family members, “Since I came back I have never gone to anyone’s home because when people see me they run away. They call me a ghost. But today I feel so much relieved after that body was exhumed.”