The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has given Kenyans seven days to identify and collect unclaimed bodies at various city mortuaries or pay a fine not exceeding 1,500 Shillings.
According to NMS Health Secretary Josephine Kibaru, Over 188 bodies have been in the morgues since March which has led to congestion in the facilities not intended to hold such a high number of bodies at ago.
The NMS has therefore published a notice indicating that members of the public have seven days from November 17th to 24th to collect their bodies. The MNS will then dispose of the remaining bodies.
The notice also indicated that some 166 unclaimed bodies are at the City Mortuary, nine at Mbagathi Funeral Home, and Thirteen at Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital.
The bodies in the morgues are of unknown persons, and a small number have their names and Identification numbers recorded.
The Metropolitan Service said most of the deceased were victims of accidents, drowning, natural causes, murder, mob justice, and suicide. The NMS notice also showed police cases relating to dead children with a majority being infants and aborted fetuses, many of whom are unknown.
The Nairobi Metropolitan service is issuing this kind of notice for the second time this year, the first was issued in March requesting the collection of 185 bodies that had overstayed in mortuaries across the city.
If the bodies are not be collected by November 24th, the law requires that the authority concerned should bury the dead in public cemeteries according to the local authority’s provision. This is to reduce the congestion in the morgues.
Nairobi City Mortuary, for instance, has a holding capacity of 160 bodies, with roughly 18 bodies coming in daily. Unfortunately, the limited resources for handling the dead forces the mortuary to house more than 200 corpses at a time, a situation that stretches such facilities financially and in terms of maintenance.