Mother finds body of missing son two days after Kenya's Ebola quarantine centre protests

A significant story is unfolding on the international scene. Mother finds body of missing son two days after Kenya's Ebola quarantine centre protests19 minutes ago Share Save Add as preferred on GoogleAkisa WanderaBBC Africa, NairobiFamily photographSylvester Muigai Ndung'u's mother said he went out on Tuesday to collect his school uniform from his auntThe mother of teenager Sylvester Muigai Ndung'u found his body in a mortuary in the central Kenyan town of Nanyuki two days after he went missing. Warning: This article contains details some readers may find upsetting. The 17-year-old was killed on Tuesday in clashes between police and demonstrators during a protest over a US plan to build an Ebola quarantine centre at a nearby military base.

Lucy Kagure had been searching for her son in hospitals and police stations and eventually discovered his body at the mortuary, where he was listed as an unidentified male. "When I found him, half of his head had been split open. His clothes were soaked in blood," she told the .

The Details

Witnesses said Muigai had been shot in the head, but a local police commander, Daniel Kitavi, told the that the authorities were still waiting for a post-mortem to determine the cause of death. Eric GithuiLucy Kagure has accused the police of using "too much force" to deal with the protestsFamily members say police officers suggested he may have been killed by a tear-gas canister rather than a bullet. Kagure said her son had left home on Tuesday to collect his school uniform from his aunt when he got caught up in the unrest.

"The police used too much force," she said through tears. "Are they not parents too? "I have struggled to raise that boy as a single mother, earning just 300 shillings ($2.

70) a day doing casual work," she said. "I brought him up from nursery school to form three, and then they just killed him. "His family described the teenager as a well-behaved boy who was always helping out at home.

What Experts Say

A leader in the local church said he had ambitions of becoming a priest. Muigai is the third person to have died amid protests against the planned 50-bed quarantine centre. The isolation unit at the Laikipia Air Base is intended for US citizens affected by the current Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The plan has sparked public concern in Kenya about cross-border infection risks and the lack of transparency from the government about the treatment centre. Last month, the High Court said the opening of the facility should be halted after a rights group opened a case alleging it posed "grave and imminent risks" to public health. Satellite imagery seen by the show that construction has continued at the airbase despite the court halting it.

via Getty ImagesProtesters in Nanyuki said there was a lack of transparency over the building of the quarantine centreThe US official last week said the administration was aware of the court case but "optimistic we can resolve objections".

The story has become one of the most prominent items on the global agenda.