• Dumping ground. Seventeen bodies unclaimed for more than three months.
• Cemetery is full; more land has been puchased..
Image: FILE:
Naivasha subcounty hospital will next week dispose of 17 unclaimed bodies lying in its mortuary for more than three months.
The disposal follows expiration of a 21-day notice issued by the Department of Public Health paving way. The bodies will be buried in a mass grave near Longonot trading centre.
Most bodies were collected by police either from accident scenes or dumped along the Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road.
This is the second time this year that the hospital whose mortuary also serves parts of Kiambu, Nyandarua and Narok counties is disposing of unclaimed bodies.
“The hospital hereby issues a 21-day notice for the bodies to be claimed failure to which they will be buried in a mass grave at the public cemetery in Longonot,” the notice read.
Speaking earlier, superintendent in charge of Naivasha hospital Dr Angeline Ithondeka, expressed her concern over the number of unclaimed bodies in their mortuary.
Ithondeka said services at the hospital’s mortuary were overstretched due to increasing unclaimed bodies.
She said it was becoming expensive every year to dispose of the bodies, adding that they followed all the legal processes before the exercise was carried out.
The announcement came as the county government acquired 21 acres in Mai Mahiu area to be used as a cemetery, Naivasha sub-county administrator Samuel Wamae said.
The cemetery along the Mai Mahiu-Namcha road will serve Mai Mahiu and Naivasha residents who for years have relied on neighboring towns to bury the bodies of their relatives.
Naivasha cemetery, which is located in a residential estate, was closed down more than 10 years after it got filled up, forcing relatives to bury relatives either in Gilgil or Longonot cemeteries.
Despite the county allocating millions for the cemetery, efforts to get the necessary land had hit the wall due to opposition from members of the communities opposed to a cemetery next to their farms.
“For years it has been a major challenge in acquiring cemetery land in the county but we have acquired 21 acres which will be used by residents of Naivasha and Mai Mahiu,” Wamae said.
(Edited by V.Graham)