By Kenfrey Kiberenge

At the moment, service delivery to the living is not the only headache the City Council of Nairobi is dealing with.

The dead have had the council scratching its head over storage space. As a partial solution, the council plans to invoke an Act passed more than 40 years ago but is rarely observed.

As part of reforms, the council says it will dispose off bodies that are not claimed in 10 days. One way will be to release the bodies to approved medical schools to use as specimen.

The law passed four years after independence allows the council to do so.

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Use as specimen

The Anatomy Act of 1967 grants medical schools authority to access unclaimed bodies, use and either bury or cremate them after use.

City Hall wants to enforce laws on storing unclaimed bodies at the mortuary. Photo: Pius Cheruiyot/Standard

Says the Act: "…the person lawfully in possession of the body of a deceased person –– not being an undertaker or other person entrusted with the body of the person only of its interment or cremation –– may, subject to Section 7 of this Act, authorise the body to be examined anatomically in an approved school of anatomy unless such person has reason to believe that the deceased had, either in writing signed by him or orally in the presence of two or more witnesses, expressed an objection to his body being examined anatomically after his death, and had not withdrawn it in the like manner, or that the surviving spouse or any relative of the deceased objects to the deceased’s body being examined anatomically."

This puts to rest speculation among Kenyans how university and college students pursuing anatomy courses obtain specimens.

The issue of keeping the dead in public mortuaries has been of concern.

In 1995, an MP stunned the House with a question on lack of mortuaries in public hospitals.

The then Dagoretti MP Chris Kamuyu posed: "Is the ministry considering introducing hyenas to eat the bodies around hospitals without mortuaries?"

The question caused laughter, but the underlying issue was considered grave.

But the latest endeavour by City Hall could emerge as a boon for the anatomy students and a bitter pill for Kenyans to swallow. Ordinarily, a person who has lost a relative will look for them in hospitals and police stations. Mortuaries are the last resort.

It may take ten days for relatives to look for their lost ones in a public mortuary.

The ten-day grace period was gazetted when President Kibaki held the Health ministry docket in 1991.

What the law says

The notice read: "Subject to these rules, no person shall keep the dead in a public mortuary for more than 10 days…any person who fails to comply with the requirements of this rule shall pay to the Medical Officer of Health a penalty of Sh100 for each day the body remains uncollected."

The City Council of Nairobi’s acting Medical Officer of Health Gathoni Gatembo, who is in-charge of the mortuary, said bodies were previously kept for up to three months.

But among the targets in the Rapid Result Initiative that is being steered by the new Town Clerk Philip Kisia is the reduction of the period to just one month, before the required 10 days can be met.

Dr Gatembo warned that bodies that will not have been picked before that period will be disposed off. "If you have a next of kin who is missing, you should not only go to the police and hospital but also visit the City Mortuary," she said.

Gatembo said most of the unclaimed bodies are those of victims of hit-and-run motorists. If the deceased does not have any identification documents, the department and police use their fingerprints to identify them. "We call the police station near the place of birth of the deceased who then alert the relatives," she said.

There are cases where the dead persons’ relatives simply refuse to claim them.

But it is not also easy for schools of anatomy to pick up bodies to use as specimens. The law demands that they must obtain a death certificate and give at least 24-hour written notice of intended anatomical examination to the Director of Medical Services.

Mode of disposal

The person removing the body must also place it in a ‘decent coffin’. People who contravene the law are liable to a fine not exceeding Sh3,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or both.

After completing the examination process, the Act dictates that the body should be "decently cremated, or interred in consecrated ground or in some public burial ground devoted to persons of the deceased person’s religion".

The DMS must also be alerted about the disposal process in writing within six weeks after the day on which the school received the body. Other places where the students may obtain specimens include the prison, hospitals or any public institution wholly or partly maintained by public funds.

The Health minister is only required to write to the heads of these institutions authorising the body of any person who dies there to be examined anatomically in an approved school of anatomy.

The downside

One of the cases where the bodies may not be used as specimen include when the minister is aware the deceased person had expressed the desire, either in writing signed by him or orally in the presence of two or more witnesses, that his body shall not be examined anatomically or if the surviving spouse or nearest known relative objects to the body being examined anatomically.

Even with this option, the council is looking for new land for public cementry since Lang’ata in Nairobi is full. It has identified land in Kathiani District, though acquisition is shrouded in controversy.