Meru finance CEC Monica Kathono on Wednesday /ALICE WAITHERA
In Muthara, Meru county, a planned mortuary has sparked a strange wave of superstition.
Some residents, uneasy with the development, claim the facility will “attract more deaths”.
Finance executive Monica Kathono said the project at Muthara Subcounty Hospital, funded by the county government, is meant to bring essential services closer to residents.
“Lack of a mortuary here forces grieving families to travel long distances to preserve their loved ones’ bodies. This facility is to help people, not frighten them,” Kathono said.
Terming the death claims “pure propaganda”, the CEC added that the project would ease congestion at Miathene Subcounty Hospital—currently the only morgue serving the Tigania region.
According to the County Integrated Development Plan 2023–2027, Muthara is one of several hospitals earmarked for new mortuaries to address the region’s chronic storage crisis.
Miathene morgue, built for 15 bodies, often holds far more, taking overflow from the already packed Meru Teaching and Referral Hospital.
At Nyambene Level 4 Hospital, a morgue with a 30-body capacity sometimes stores over 200 due to family disputes and unclaimed remains.
Muthara MCA Aulerio Murangiri dismissed the superstition as “21st-century ignorance”.
“We all face death at some point. These backward beliefs won’t stop us from delivering services,” he said, noting that transporting bodies costs families over Sh10,000, a figure the new facility could slash to Sh2,000.
Murangiri added that the lack of proper storage forces hospitals to place children’s bodies in boxes or wrap them in cloth—an indignity the new mortuary will end.
He accused political opponents of using the project to tarnish his name and urged leaders to put residents’ needs above petty rivalries.
