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City Hall to dispose of 108 unclaimed bodies lying in county morgues

By Amina Wako January 31st, 2020 1 min read

Nairobi County government has issued a seven-day notice for the collection of 108 unclaimed bodies lying at the Mbagathi District Hospital mortuary and Nairobi City Mortuary.

According to City Hall, the number of unclaimed bodies lying at the City Mortuary and Mbagathi Hospital is 89 and 19 respectively.

The county said it will dispose of the bodies after the seven day notice lapses as required by the law.

“The following are 89 unclaimed bodies lying at the City Mortuary and 19 at the Mbagathi Hospital Funeral Home from the date of admission awaiting collection. Pursuant to Public Health Act Cap 242. Members of the public are asked to identify and collect the named bodies within 7 days, failure to which the County Government of Nairobi will seek authority for disposal,” the notice says.

At the City Mortuary, out of the 89 bodies, 69 are unknown.

The identified bodies have been classified by gender: 19 male, three female and two fetuses.

At Mbagathi Hospital, the number of unclaimed bodies are 19: four females and 15 males.

Among the 19 bodies, only three are unknown. The morgue has a storage capacity of 120 bodies.

The causes of death include shooting, mob, accident, suicide, murder, drowning, abortion among others.

The bodies preserved at City mortuary have been lying there since June 2019 while the Mbagathi ones date back to April, 2019.

The Public Health Act stipulates that a body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks or be disposed of.

If the bodies are not identified, the county must seek permission from the court to get rid of them.