Azimio la Umoja One Kenya coalition party leader Raila Odinga was on Friday denied access to the site in Shakahola Forest, Kilifi County, in which an exhumation operation is currently ongoing.
The opposition party chief arrived at the scene alongside a number of Coastal leaders affiliated to the Azimio political outfit.
The former premiere and his entourage were received by police officers manning the scene and given a brief tour of the operation’s command centre.
Trouble however started when Mr. Odinga and his associates allegedly requested to view the shallow mass graves discovered at the scene.
Their plea was shot down by authorities who maintained that the area was an active crime scene.
The police soon after directed Mr. Odinga’s group to board their vehicles and leave the premises but the former premiere’s faction was having none of it.
“Tuambie ni nani tunapigia simu. You cannot do that. Humheshimu Baba? Tupande magari twende? Iishie hapa? We will not. I am a leader in Kilifi County,” Kilifi Woman Representative Gertrude Mwanyanje told the police
On his part, Mr. Odinga noted that police should not bar members of the public from accessing the site.
“What has happened here has happened all over the world. You should never bar members of the public, the media and people representing humanitarian organisations to see (the grounds),” he said.
Speaking at the site in late April, Interior Cabinet Secretary Prof. Kithure Kindiki noted that members of the public and press were being denied access to the grounds owing to how sensitive the exhumation process is.
“The process of exhuming the bodies is a court-ordered process; It is done based on certain ethical and professional standards, that’s why we cannot allow everybody to take part in the exhumation, or to take images,” he said then.
“Such images are limited even by international law because they constitute outrageous crimes against human duty. These are the bodies of people’s loved ones and kin and so there is a limit even in terms of what security agents can do.”
He added that the State was also limiting the movement of law enforcement agents who have access to the grounds.
