The mother of a missing boy found his body this morning in a ditch near a government quarantine facility in Kisumu, as protests against the Ebola lockdown turned violent overnight. Three sources confirm the child, aged seven, disappeared three days ago after security forces dispersed a crowd demanding the release of families held inside the isolation centre. His mother, Marie Okelo, told me she recognised his clothes.
The body showed signs of blunt force trauma. Police denied involvement and claimed the boy was 'unaccounted for' during the chaos. The quarantine was imposed last week after a suspected Ebola case crossed from Uganda.
No official records of detained families exist. The interior ministry refused to answer questions. I obtained internal memos showing the facility was built with funds diverted from a World Bank health grant in 2023.
The money trail leads to a private security firm with ties to the president's brother. Two whistleblowers inside the ministry corroborate the documents. The protest began after food rations stopped and sewage overflowed into the compound.
One witness who spoke on condition of anonymity said soldiers fired into the air, then at the crowd. The boy's body was found 200 metres from the fence. No one has claimed responsibility.
The county coroner has not released a cause of death. I have seen the death certificate: it lists 'unknown external causes'. The family has no legal representation.
They cannot afford a lawyer. The government says the quarantine is necessary to contain the outbreak. The same government paid the security firm $2.
4 million for 'crowd control services' in January. That company's director was charged with bribery in 2019. The charges were dropped.
He now lives in a mansion in Nairobi. The mother holds a photograph of her son. She cannot read the death certificate.
She asked me if anyone will be held accountable. I told her I would write the truth. But truth does not bring back the dead.
Two police officers involved in the dispersal have been reassigned to a station 500 miles away. No internal investigation has been announced. The quarantine continues.
The boy's body is in a morgue freezer next to three others from the protest. Their names have not been released. The World Bank has not responded to my emails.
The grant money is still unaccounted for. I have the documents. I have the sources.
Now someone in power must answer.
