City to bury 185 unclaimed bodies after 7-day notice

Some 185 unclaimed bodies in Nairobi county mortuaries will be buried in a mass grave if they are not identified and collected in seven days.

The unclaimed bodies have congested the morgues, the Nairobi Metropolitan Services said in a notice in Tuesday dailies.

The county will seek a court order to dispose of the bodies. There are 157 bodies are at the City Mortuary, 16 at Mama Lucy Hospital mortuary and 12 at Mbagathi Hospital morgue.

NMS identified the cause of death as accidents, abortion, lynching, stillbirths, murder and drowning.

County public health officials often complain of the number of unclaimed bodies especially at the City Mortuary.

Last year, they said some of the bodies had been in the morgues since 2017. 

In October last year, City Court chief magistrate R. Oganyo allowed City Hall to  dispose of 97 unclaimed bodies at Mbagathi Hospital.

The county is supposed to issue a 21-day notice and thereafter bury the bodies in a mass grave at Lang'ata cemetery.

Cap 242 of the Public Health Act says an unclaimed body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks or else it is disposed of in a mass grave after public officers obtain a court's permission.

In 2016, City Mortuary received 4,115 bodies, 4,025 in 2017 and 2,018 in 2018.

Mama Lucy had 1,055 bodies in 2016. The number was down to 399 in 2017 but rose to 1,436.  The body count was 1,275 by September 2019.

In 2006, the City Mortuary and Kenyatta National Hospital mortuary disposed of  1,500 unclaimed bodies in five months at a loss of Sh5 million in mortuary fees.

Between 2003 and 2006, the City Mortuary disposed of 2,500 unclaimed bodies. The number for KNH was 3,000.

Edited by

- mwaniki fm