CHUKA, KENYA: Chuka sub county hospital mortuary is overwhelmed with 40 unclaimed bodies that have been lying at the morgue for more than three months.
Speaking to journalists at the hospital, Senior Superintendent Sarah Gichuku said the morgue has a capacity of eight bodies but this has been exceeded due to the number of deaths in the area.
She said the unclaimed bodies include ten bodies of adult and 30 bodies of new born babies.
“Some of the bodies have been lying in the facility since April prompting the management to seek alternatives on how to dispose the bodies.
Mrs Gichuku said according to the law they were allowed to dispose unclaimed bodies after they stay for over three months.
As the standard established, the unclaimed bodies have been lying alongside other claimed bodies creating a congestion of corpses at the facility.
“Most of the bodies are brought in by police, they do not inform or do proper inquest to unveil the relatives. Others are dumped by their relatives to evade waving the medical bills,” She said.
Mrs Gichuku said they got an order from Chuka law courts seeking to have the hospital dispose the bodies that have been lying in the morgue since April.
“We do not have a cemetery in Chuka so we have to bury the bodies in the hospital undeveloped land, our land is very small and soon we will have no land to actually bury them,” She said.
The hospital boss added that the process is expensive for the hospital as they are forced to hire a tractor, buy polythene bags, disinfectants and get people to dig the graves at least Sh.10, 000 depending on the number of bodies.
“Sometimes we pay more than Sh.10,000 as bodies are many, we try as much as possible to waive the bills of those that have relatives so they can bury their loved ones but what will we do with a decomposing body that have been with us for months and no one is claiming it,” She lamented.
She asked the County government to assist upgrade the mortuary since the health sector was devolved.
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