This archive report was first published on 14 October 2019.
On October 14, 2019, a somber moment of closure arrived at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi as the remains of 28 Kenyans who perished in the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash in March finally arrived.
The remains, transported aboard an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft, were received by the families and friends of the crash victims at the VIP terminal of JKIA, where they were offered psychosocial support.
According to Ethiopian authorities, the bodies were severely damaged in the crash, and only after extensive DNA tests were the remains matched to corresponding families.
The DNA matching process took more than 240 days to conclude, complicated by the high number of crash victims and the intensity of the damage to the bodies.
Days after the accident, some families were handed jars of ashes and earth from the crash site to serve as a memory of their loved ones, but most said they would only get full closure when they received the remains of their kin.
The remains will be released to only close family members, bringing an end to a long and difficult wait for those who lost loved ones in the tragic accident.
