DCI gets nod to exhume body of 17-year-old girl killed for refusing to marry old man in Wajir

Gaala was buried on March 22 at Dagahaley Refugee Camp in Dadaab, Wajir County.

The SCCIO of Wajir West will supervise the exhumation process. The court further ordered that the Dagahaley Police Station provide security during the exhumation process. 

The purpose of the exhumation is to conduct a repeat postmortem examination to ascertain the precise cause of death and to extract samples for toxicology and DNA analysis. 

The investigators propose that DNA sampling be conducted at the gravesite or another location as advised by the Government Pathologist.

The 17-year-old girl was brutally murdered after she rejected a 55-year-old man to whom she had been forcibly married.

She had been transported at night from the Dagahley refugee camp, 150 kilometers away, to Wara, Ademasajida in Habaswein—a remote village— to meet the man for the first time.

Her rejection, despite coercion from the man's relatives, led to her death. However, she reportedly made a call on Saturday night, revealing plans for her death and naming those who orchestrated it.

A postmortem examination report revealed her body had sustained 100% burns, indicating the use of an open flame.