This archive report was first published on 16 August 2019.
On August 12, 2019, a tragic incident occurred in Bosaso Port, the commercial capital of the autonomous Puntland State of Somalia. A 41-year-old Kenyan man, Cosmas Joseph Owuor, was shot dead by one of the hotel's security guards.
According to his father, Pius Ogweyo, the family learned about Owuor's killing after another Kenyan working at the same hotel phoned the deceased's wife. Ogweyo expressed his concern about the unclear circumstances surrounding his son's death, stating, 'We have very scanty information about what exactly happened on that fateful Monday morning. We only understand that there was a small misunderstanding between my son and the gateman.'
The family from Bondo, Siaya County, has appealed to the government, through the Kenyan Embassy in Puntland, to help them ferry Owuor's body to Kenya for interment. They have also pleaded for help to get justice for their slain kin.
As the family struggles to come to terms with the loss of their loved one, they are also facing financial difficulties in transporting Owuor's body back to Kenya. Ogweyo stated, 'We are not able to raise the money to transport the body of our son back to the country. That is why we are asking the government to come to our aid.'
Efforts to contact Owuor's employer have been unsuccessful, and the Nairobi-based recruitment agency that linked him with the hotel has been unhelpful. Owuor's widow, Juliana Kimori, expressed her frustration, saying, 'We got the contact of the agency and immediately we told the agent about the incident, he switched off the phone. Now they don't even answer our calls.'
