The body of an elderly man went missing from the mortuary of Kiirua Mission Hospital in Meru County leading to protests by the family of the deceased.
When the deceased’s family reached the hospital for collection, the body was found missing.
When the body could not be traced after several hours, the family of the deceased created a ruckus inside the hospital, leading to the intervention of the police.
“When we demanded answers as to why our kin, had been misplaced, the sisters became rude to us. Another family is said to have collected the body and buried it in Tigania. I believe the body was sold out,” a relative of the kin said.
A family member said that when they were summoned to examine the body, they discovered another small body with a missing leg. She said their kin weighed more than 120KG.
“To our surprise, the hospital administration had demanded that we pay the NHIF fee before we had realized the body wasn’t ours. We are perplexed as to why the fee is paid to the dead, but we ended up paying it and clearing any outstanding bills.
She said that the hospital administration informed them that there had been a mistake as a result of another deceased who had two wives when one of the wives who came to collect the body was unfamiliar with her deceased husband and ended up with the wrong body.
“We have suffered significant losses as well as the time spent organizing funeral arrangements as a result of the hospital management. Additional expenses will be incurred as the body must be dug and retrieved. Funeral plans must be made once more,” she said
Rev. Joshua Muriithi said that the deceased was a member of St. Joakim church.
He said that after family members demanded answers for the loss of their kin’s body, the morgue attendants became rude and said they acted like crazy people.
“When chaos threatened to erupt between family members and hospital management due to a lack of communication about how the body would be retrieved, we alerted the police, who arrived to intervene,” Muriithi said.
He said they had been at the morgue for five hours and there wasn’t any communication from hospital administration.
“The distance between the morgue and the burial ground in Nchoroiboro is 4 kilometers. We, as church leaders, would have finished the ceremony by now,” Muriithi said.
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The deceased’s granddaughter said that when they discovered that the body had been misplaced, they went to the police station to file a report.
“After obtaining a permit, we arrived at the Morgue at 10:00 a.m. to collect the body. After discovering it was misplaced, we went to file a report at the police station. While reporting the incident, we noticed the OCS and police officers getting into a vehicle. The deputy OCS informed us that they were going to the morgue. When we returned to the hospital, we were denied entry,” she said.
She said that the police were said to be inside the hospital communicating with the management.
According to the deceased’s grandson, his late grandfather was 6 feet tall, but the body they were shown was only 4 feet tall. He said they were told that the body had been taken to Igembe to be buried.
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