Tanzania Declines to Release Body of Kenyan

A family in Migori County has cried foul after Tanzanian authorities declined to release the body of their kin who passed on in the neighbouring country.

Tanzanian officials reportedly denied the family access to Prisca Ojuju's body claiming that she had died of cholera and the law didn't allow such bodies to be ferried out of the hospital.

Ojuju is said to have visited the country to attend the burial of a relative but fell sick. She was taken to a local hospital where she died after two days.

According to the family, the body was laid to rest immediately in the hospital's compound and they were not even allowed to come to contact with it.

“We were taken to Utegi dispensary where her body was. We were only allowed to view her body and it was buried inside the dispensary's compound. In the country, it is a law that anyone who dies of cholera is buried immediately and within the hospital if he or she dies there. This is to avoid contamination,” they said.

Back home, relatives of Ojuju were forced to bury a stone which was explained to be part of the community's  culture.

An elder from the area stated that according to their traditions, if a person dies and is buried in a foreign land, the relatives should pick a stone from the graveyard and bury it.

The deceased's kinsmen were therefore forced to travel to Tanzania to pick a rock which was thereafter buried in a low-key ceremony.


 

 

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