Posh Estate Residents Protest Over Mortuary Noise

Apartment complex in Kisumu
An apartment complex in Kisumu
Facebook

Residents of Milimani Estate in Kisumu county are protesting against a mortuary in their neighborhood for being too noisy.

The locals petitioned the county government to have the mortuary at the Nightingale Hospital shut down for noise pollution.

They claimed that the mourners who gathered at the facility to collect the bodies of their loved ones were noisy as they wailed and honked their vehicles.

Issuing a notice to the hospital, the county government stated that hospitals should not run mortuaries in residential neighborhoods.

Nightingale Medical Centre in Milimani Estate, Kisumu City.
Nightingale Medical Centre in Milimani Estate, Kisumu City.
Twitter

Acting Kisumu city manager Abala Wanga further stated that the hospital lacked a public health license to operate a mortuary.

Giving a 14-day ultimatum to the health facility, Wanga added that the hospital should only have a temporary holding place for the bodies.

“You are hereby required to immediately from the date of this service notice to stop operating a morgue within a residential area,” read a letter addressed to the hospital's management.

The hospital's management denied any wrongdoing on their part.



"We charge higher fees to discourage people from keeping bodies here. The mortuary is not our core business," the hospital's administrator noted.

Wanga stated that the county was considering a ban on burying bodies within the city urging residents to used gazetted cemeteries instead.

“We want people to bury their dead in the cemetery and not in slums or estates within the town. If you cannot trace your ancestors to go and bury at home, you have an option of burying at the cemetery," he noted.

He added that if the burials in estates were not stopped, future expansion plans for roads and other amenities would be affected.

The city manager stated that the regulations were needed to make Kisumu meet the standard of other cities.

A cemetery in Kisumu county.
A cemetery in Kisumu county.
Twitter

 

  • .