Bodies of Kenyans killed in South Sudan arrive home

 

By LILLIAN MUTAVI in Nairobi

There were emotional scenes at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Saturday as family and friends received bodies of three Kenyan aid workers killed in South Sudan a week ago.

The employees of Grassroots Empowerment and Development Organisation (Gredo), an NGO funded by Unicef, were ambushed while travelling from Juba to Pibor, a town in eastern South Sudan last month.

The three bodies of the aid workers arrived at JKIA at 1pm (+3GMT) after a funeral service at Tearfund near Juba hospital.

Among those who received the bodies was Gredo Programme Director Jaffar Mbugua.

A convoy

Mr Mbugua told the Sunday Nation that the three Kenyans; Mr Samsom Mbugua Chege, Mr David Wainaina Mbugua and Mr Joseph Wanjau Njaaga, had just left the country to be employed in the organisation.

“We moved in a convoy from Juba to Pibor, a town in the eastern part of South Sudan where they were killed,” he said.

The Kenyans were among six aid workers who were ambushed and killed by unknown gunmen.

The body of the fourth Kenyan killed in the attack, the Sunday Nation learnt, would be brought to the country by road.

She returned

Ms Ann Nyokabi Karanja, a cousin to Mr Mbugua, said that she was living with him in South Sudan before she returned to the country recently.

When he came back last December, he said that he had been offered another job by GREDO and left the country in February.

Last Saturday, he had called the family and told them that he would be flying to a town called Pibor but they later learnt they went by road.

War-torn nation

She added that her cousin had lived in Southern Sudan for nine years

Mr Kimani Mbugua lost his brother, Mr Chege, who was contracted by the NGO as a teacher of English in the war-torn nation.

Mr Kimani said that he had called to tell them that he was travelling from Juba to a town called Pibor. That was the last time they heard from him.

Highest number

On Monday, they got a call from the NGO to confirm that he was among the four who had died.

According to UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha), the incident presented the highest number of aid workers killed since December 2013 when the South Sudan conflict started.

Reports indicate that 79 aid workers have been killed since December 2013.