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windshell
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Joined: 15 Nov 2006
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 Posted: 03/07/07 - 14:07 Post subject: ‘Homeless’ Kenyan dies in US
The body of a homeless Kenyan reported to have died of winter cold in the US about one-and-a-half months ago is still lying at a funeral home.
Nobody has claimed the body and no Kenyan in the US has co-ordinated efforts to raise money to transport it home.
According to a report published in the Salem News of Essex County, Massachusetts, Stephen Koech, 44, was found dead outside his makeshift home in a concrete off Howley Street on January 27.
Although the cause of the death was not immediately established, the report says that State agencies suspected Koech died from hypothermia (extreme cold).
"Perhaps his insistence on staying outdoors when temperatures reached the season’s worst played a role," Mr Stephen O’Connell, the spokesman for the Essex County District Attorney’s Office, is reported to have said.
An autopsy has been carried out, but the medical examiner’s office told The Standard that they could not release any information concerning the deceased without the consent and authority of the next of kin.
Koech’s death has raised concern in Essex County and the State in general about what could be done to avoid a similar tragedy.
Authorities are surprised that it has not received as much attention in Kenya.
"We hear that Kenyans are a close-knit community, how come they are not coming forth to help out?" Stacie Galang, the Salem News reporter who wrote the report on Koech wondered.
Koech hailed from Kuiuua village, Konoin location of Kericho District, Rift Valley. He is believed to have come to the US on an athletic scholarship.
"He had a scholarship and for sometime he attended East Texas State University. But something must have happened along the way and he lost everything. When he lost a job and couldn’t maintain housing, the streets became his home," said Galang.
Source: eastandard.net By Chris Wamalwa
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