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Nairobi county to dispose of 185 unclaimed bodies


The Nairobi Metropolitan Services has appealed to members of the public to show up and identify bodies lying in the City Mortuary before they are disposed of.

According to a public notice published in a local daily, the bodies have overstayed in city morgues and the county will seek authority to get rid of them if uncollected in seven days.

The bodies are in three city morgues with City Mortuary holding 157 bodies, Mama Lucy Hospital mortuary 16 bodies and Mbagathi Hospital mortuary 12 such bodies.

According to the notice, the bodies are mostly of unknown persons whose cause of death range from mob justice, murder, drowning, accidents, suicide, abortion and foetus deaths.

The notice indicated that most of the bodies have been lying in the mortuaries in the city from late last year while others have been there since March of 2019.

In January, City Hall issued a similar 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 government 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 stated.

City Mortuary has a capacity of 160 bodies with about 18 bodies coming in each day.

The Public Health Act stipulates that a body should be removed from a mortuary in the country 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.