By Bonface Mulyungi

Government pathologist Dr Titus Ngulungu has said DNA analysis will be conducted to help identify bodies recovered from the deadly dormitory fire at Utumishi Girls Academy in Gilgil.

Speaking at the scene on Thursday night, Dr Ngulungu said forensic teams had completed documentation of the site and recovered 16 bodies from the burnt dormitory.

“The purpose for today was to recover the bodies and document the scene. We have documented the scene, and we have also combed through the debris, all the cubes of this dormitory, and we have managed to recover 16 bodies,” he said.

He noted that the bodies had been secured in body bags and would be transported to Naivasha Mortuary for post-mortem examinations and further forensic analysis.

“We have documented the bodies and secured them in body bags, and we are planning to take them to Naivasha Mortuary for post-mortem and further DNA analysis,” he stated.

Dr Ngulungu explained that most of the bodies were severely burnt, making visual identification difficult.

“The bodies, most of them are completely charred, they are completely consumed by the products of combustion, and they might be difficult to identify, so that is the reason why we are performing the DNA so that they can be identified when we compare with the relatives,” he said.

He further revealed that the search operation had been temporarily suspended due to exhaustion and fading daylight, but would resume the following day.

“For the time being, we have decided to call off the search. It is going to continue tomorrow, but because of the time and exhaustion, we have decided to stop there,” he added.