The Nairobi Metropolitan Services (NMS) on Thursday, July 30, issued a notice for residents to collect unclaimed bodies in public mortuaries within seven days.
In a public notice, the organisation's Health Secretary Dr. Josephine Kibaru noted that 151 unclaimed bodies were lying at City Mortuary and seven at the Mbagathi Funeral Home from the date of admission awaiting collection.
"Pursuant to Public Health Act Cap 242 (subsidiary; public health (public mortuaries) rules, 1991 (2), Interested members of the public are asked to identify and collect the bodies within seven days, failure to which the Nairobi Metropolitan Services will seek authority for disposal," the notice read in part.
The bodies in the public mortuaries date from as far back as 2018 and as recently as the month of April 2020.
Most of their identities are unknown and are from different parts of the Nairobi Metropolitan Area including Kitengela, Kasarani, Lang'ata, Kabete, Juja, Kamukunji, Starehe, Soweto, Buruburu, Muthaiga, Mlolongo, Pangani, Kikuyu.
The causes of death stated in the notice include accidents, drowning, suicide, natural death, mob justice, shooting and murder.
In January 2020, 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 the Public Health Act Cap 242, a public mortuary is a mortuary within a Government medical institution where dead bodies are kept before burial.
"Subject to these Rules, no person shall keep the dead in a public mortuary for more than ten days. Any person who fails to comply with the requirements of this Rule shall pay to the Medical Officer of Health a penalty of one hundred shillings for each day the body remains uncollected," the law reads in part.
However, an exception is given where it is not practicable to remove the dead body within the specified days after death due to legal reasons. The Medical Officer of Health must be informed in writing by the next of kin within that period and the Medical Officer of Health shall give his ruling in writing.
"Any person who fails to comply with any provisions of these Rules shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two thousand shillings or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to both," the law directs.
