The Foreign Office is facing mounting pressure after a British mother discovered her son’s remains in a Nairobi morgue, two days after he vanished during protests against alleged Ebola cover-ups, sources confirm. The 28-year-old aid worker, identified as James Thornton, had been documenting the unrest for a human rights group before he disappeared on March 12. His mother, Sarah Thornton, flew to Kenya after he stopped answering calls.
She found his body in a city mortuary, bearing signs of blunt force trauma. “They told me he was a casualty of the protests. But what was he doing in a government facility?
” she told The Guardian. The Foreign Office has now summoned the Kenyan High Commissioner to London for an explanation, but critics say the response has been too slow. Uncovered documents obtained by this journalist show that the UK was warned of potential violence against foreign nationals in Kenya weeks before Thornton’s death, yet no travel advisory was issued.
The protests, which have rocked Nairobi since the discovery of an unmarked Ebola clinic in a Kibera slum, have left 14 dead according to official counts, though humanitarian sources say the true figure is higher. The Kenyan government denies any cover-up and claims Thornton was caught in crossfire between protesters and police. But his mother’s account contradicts that: she says his body was clean of bullet wounds, only contusions.
The Foreign Office has refused to comment on the details, citing the ongoing investigation. This echoes a pattern: just last year, the UK dragged its heels on the death of another British national in Kenya. The question now is whether this is incompetence or complicity.
The mother’s anguish is a ticking clock for Whitehall. They had better start answering. Or the bodies will keep piling up.
