The Nairobi Metropolitan Services will seek authority to dispose 132 bodies that are lying unclaimed in various public mortuaries across the city.
In a notice issued on Friday, March 4, NMS Director of Medical Services Ouma Oluga said the agency will seek authority to dispose the bodies if they remain uncollected after seven days from the date of the notice.
"Pursuant to Public Health Act Cap 242, interested members of the public are asked to identify and collect the below named bodies within seven days, failure to which the Nairobi Metropolitan Services will seek authority for disposal," Oluga said.
Thirty two of the bodies are lying at the Mama Lucy Hospital mortuary. Eight of the bodies are female while 24 are male, all ranging from the age of 15 to 73 years old.
All but seven bodies at the mortuary have been identified through finger print tracing. Six of the unidentified bodies are male while one is female.
At City Mortuary, 139 bodies are lying uncollected. The cause of death for the majority of the bodies range from accident, suicide, sudden death, mob injustice, murder and natural death.
Sudden death leads as the cause of death for 34 bodies followed by accidents which account for 24 of the deaths.
Murder is listed as cause of death for nine bodies, mob injustice for seven bodies while shooting account for five deaths.
Twenty five bodies are listed as having resulted from natural deaths while suicide is blamed as the cause for the death of four bodies.
Drowning caused seven of the deaths, one suffocation while the cause of two deaths remain unknown.
The last time the NMS sought orders to dispose unclaimed bodies was October 2022.
There were 164 bodies that were lying uncollected at that time. Four months before that in July 2021, the agency sought orders to inter 70 unclaimed bodies.
