Family Calls Off Caroline Kangogo's Burial After Failed Autopsy

The family of police officer Caroline Kangogo was forced to call off her burial following a standoff with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). 

Kangogo was set to be interred on Saturday but the family changed the plan at the last minute after a postmortem examination scheduled for Friday failed to take place.

Family and relatives arrived at the Iten hospital morgue on Friday ahead of the autopsy but no pathologist turned up for the procedure.

Chief Government Pathologist Dr. Johansen Oduor said he was not informed of the intended autopsy.

“I am just asking for the body of my daughter to be released. It is shocking that on Tuesday, the DCI informed us to plan for Saturday burial since the autopsy will be conducted on the eve of the funeral,” Kangogo’s father Barnaba Korir told reporters outside the morgue.

“We did not sanction the postmortem and we are demanding the release of the body of my daughter. I have no issues. I don’t understand why they didn’t inform us that they were not going to facilitate the autopsy. Honestly, we could have postponed the funeral.”

On Saturday, the family announced they had called off the burial until after an autopsy to ascertain the cause of Kangogo’s death is done.

“We have been promised by DCI officers in Iten the autopsy will be conducted on Tuesday. We are waiting for that day then we plan for the burial,” her brother Mark Kangogo told journalists.

Kangogo, who was wanted over the murder of Police Constable John Ogweno (28) and businessman Peter Ndwiga Njiru (32), was found dead at her parents’ home in Elgeyo-Marakwet on July 16th.

She is alleged to have shot herself dead inside a bathroom at her parents’ home in Nyawa village.