A family in Butere, Kakamega County has been forced to stay home with a dead man after the closure of all public morgues in the county.
This is after Kakamega Governor Wycliffe Oparanya closed all mortuaries in his county for the next 30 days in a prevention strategy against the deadly coronavirus.
The man's family members stated that their culture did not allow for an adult to be buried immediately after their death.
"If it was a child, we would have probably buried him or her immediately, but in our case, it is a 35-year-old man and our culture does not allow us to bury him immediately," one of the family members stated.
Further, the family stated that they had called a mortuary attendant to their home, who ensured that the remains were well preserved.
The family's decision has necessitated by their lack of money to take the body to a private mortuary.
"We followed the governor's directive after he ordered that nobody should be taken to a public morgue," a relative said.
The incident comes four days after the governor's directive.
‘’All bodies at the mortuaries should be collected by family members as soon as possible. We have waived all mortuary expenses. So the bodies should be collected without a problem," Oparanya directed.
“For now, no corpse should be taken to the mortuary. We will facilitate the community so that we ensure that the bodies are being disposed of as quickly as possible,” he added.
The Council of Governors chairman also ordered the total ban of weddings in his county, until further notice.
