Residents of Nkamathi Village in Mutuati, Meru County were left in shock on Tuesday when a man who was presumed dead and buried reappeared alive and in good health.
Abdalla Mwenda, 20, was “buried” the previous Friday after his family identified a body found in the house he had been living in at the Mutuati market. Mwenda was surprised that his family and villagers had assumed he was dead without attempting to search for him.
Some residents expressed doubt about the body and urged the family to conduct further investigations before proceeding with the burial. Nkamathi Chief Bernard Muroki explained that Mwenda had not been home for about three months when the body was discovered in the house he had been living in.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been investigating the matter. It seems more inquiries need to be done to identify the body that was buried,” Muroki said.
The assumption was that the deceased was Mwenda since the body was found in the house he had been residing in. “I concluded that Mr. Mwenda was living with a woman in the house where the body was found in Mutuati market. After the body was discovered, the woman was nowhere to be found. The matter was further complicated by the fact that his parents live in Mombasa,” said village elder Ithalii.
However, according to Mwenda, he had separated from the woman and moved to Nthambiro, about 20 kilometers away. “Since my job involves picking miraa, I travel from place to place. I am shocked to find out that my family buried me,” said a visibly shaken Mwenda.
Surprisingly, one of Mwenda’s co-workers revealed that they passed by Mwenda’s home on Friday, the day of the burial. “We left Nthambiro, Igembe Central, on Friday to harvest miraa in Ntonyiri. We passed by Mwenda’s home, and he was puzzled by the large crowd but we continued our journey.”
“On Sunday, we were informed that Mwenda had been buried. He was so shocked that he couldn’t work and went to sleep,” narrated one of Mwenda’s colleagues.
