Nakuru County will dispose of 88 unclaimed bodies from public morgues within twenty-one days if they are not collected.
The devolved unit has further released a list of the unclaimed bodies, indicating the exact place of death and date as well as the cause of the death.
In a notice issued by County Public Health Officer George Gachomba, it was indicated that the corpses that presently lie at the County Referral and Teaching Hospital Mortuary and Annex Provincial General Hospital Public Mortuary had been unclaimed for over three months, affecting services at the facilities.
Gachomba said among the unclaimed bodies are 16 adults and 50 infants which have been lying at the County Referral and Teaching Hospital Mortuary and a further 22 adult bodies at the Public Mortuary (Annex PGH), Teaching Hospital Mortuary.
Mr. Gachomba said Nakuru is incurring significant costs in preserving uncollected bodies and asked interested members of the public to identify and collect the bodies within twenty-one days, failure to which Nakuru County will seek authority for disposal.
According to the list released by Mr. Gachomba, some of the unclaimed bodies had identities by the time of collection, while others did not and thus remained unknown. Some of the bodies marked as unknown were said to have been recovered by police without any form of identification documentation.
However, the health officer said a court order will be first sought so as to allow them to dispose of the bodies if no one will have claimed them, pursuant to the Public Health Act Cap 242 [Subsidiary; public health (public mortuaries) rules, 1991].
Mr. Gachomba explained that the two health facilities have exhausted all the available mechanisms to trace the next of kin without success.
“If next of kin are not traced, the disposal will be done after the expiry of twenty-one days from the date of this letter at the Nakuru South Cemetery,” the notice read in part.
After every few months, mortuaries run public notices of the disposal of bodies. Upon expiry of the notice, the bodies are buried in public cemeteries or in mass graves without the knowledge of their loved ones. Unfortunately, the bodies are buried with no rites.
The disposal is carried out to create room and to avoid overstretching the facilities where the bodies are preserved.
The Public Health Act (Cap 242) mortuary rule stipulates that no person shall keep the dead in a mortuary for more than 10 days. If a body remains unclaimed for 21 days, the hospital is allowed to dispose of it as long as they have court orders and have given a 14-day public notice.
According to Public Health Act 242 (Public Mortuaries), any person who keeps the dead in a public mortuary for more than 10 days shall pay to the Medical Officer of Health a penalty of one hundred shillings for each day the body remains uncollected.
However, medical schools with legal backing and permission from the Ministry of Health are allowed by the Anatomy Act, Cap. 249, to obtain unclaimed bodies for medical studies.
By Esther Mwangi and Felistas Kahungu
