The High Court in Mombasa has issued orders allowing police to exhume the body of a 5-year old minor, Maryam Said, who died under unclear circumstances.
In her ruling, High Court judge Anne Onginjo issued the orders to have the body of the minor exhumed after a miscellaneous application was brought before Shanzu Magistrate's court.
"The applicants sought for exhumation of the body for purposes of inquiring into the cause of death of the five-year-old minor to facilitate a postmortem exercise to establish the cause of death," the magistrate said.
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The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Kisauni, through the investigating officer Kiprorir Langat sought the orders to have the minors' body exhumed citing foul play in her death.
Langat in his application under certificate of urgency sought orders to have the body of the deceased which was buried at Jasbiri Mwarauka cemetery exhumed for purposes of medical examination to ascertain the cause of death.
Langat further requested the court to direct the medical superintendent of Coast General hospital to conduct a postmortem on the body of the minor immediately after exhumation.
In his sworn affidavit, the investigating officer informed the court that ongoing investigations established that the minor was suffocated to death by her stepmother Amina Noor on May 16 this year while in her sleep.
Langat noted that police investigations established that her stepmother confessed to her husband that she suffocated the minor to death.
“The father of the deceased in his statement to police indicated that the deceased was of good health prior to her death and that his estranged wife had admitted to having caused the death of the deceased,” Langat told the court.
He told the court that the autopsy report by a medical officer forms part of crucial evidence in a suspected murder case.
"Without proof on the cause of death, no action can be taken upon the alleged perpetrator hence its imminent that exhumation occurs," he told the court.
