Exhumation work has begun at Gotinyango village in Nyaribari Masaba, Kisii County after a young woman who was believed to have died in a road accident seven months ago unexpectedly resurfaced.
County health officials and police officers supervised the operation as the family of 20-year-old Sarah Kwamboka watched from a distance.
The remains were buried in February after relatives identified the body at a local mortuary and confirmed, to their satisfaction at the time, that it was Sarah.
Kwamboka disappeared in October last year. She was expected to join Form Four this year but vanished without a trace. The family mounted a long search that produced nothing.
The call from the mortuary months later, reporting that she had been hit by a vehicle and died at the scene, appeared to bring the grim search to an end.
Relatives identified the body despite severe head injuries.
Her mother said she recognised her daughter’s teeth and accepted that the ordeal was over.
The family raised what little they could and held a funeral in mid February.
That certainty collapsed in September when Sarah’s mother received a call from an unfamiliar number. The caller said she had Sarah with her but the young woman was too afraid to speak.
The mother ended the call, convinced it was a cruel trick. The phone rang again. This time a voice she recognised greeted her in Ekegusii.
The two spoke at length and Sarah explained where she was, that she had eloped with another man, even as her mum spoke of how she buried her after learning she died in an accident.
“Mum I am alive,” she was quoted.
The family later met her in person and confirmed she was alive and in good health.
Authorities are now working to establish the identity of the woman buried in her place and how the body was misidentified.
Investigators say they will rely on forensic analysis once the exhumation is completed.
