By Munene Kamau
Shock gripped Kangware and Kianguenyi villages in Kirinyaga County after a body was mistakenly buried, leaving the right one at a private morgue.
The body of John Kigundu, 73, was collected and buried last Thursday at Kianguenyi village in Kirinyaga East District by members of the Akorino sect.
The sect members were reported to have gone to the morgue and collected the body, mistaking it for their kin Simon Njine, 80.
When Kigundu’s family members went to the same mortuary to collect his body on Tuesday for burial, they got a rude shock when they discovered it was missing.
“As the eldest brother in our family, I gathered courage and entered the mortuary to identify my brother’s body, only to find that the one the attendant was showing me was the wrong one,” said Mbogo Mwangi.
Mbogo said he informed the administrators of the mortuary owned by a church in the area that the body of his brother was missing.
Labelling bodies
A shocked Mbogo blamed the administration for not labelling the bodies and expressed outrage for subjecting the two concerned families to more agony.
Mbogo, who is also a former Kerugoya–Kutus town mayor, regretted that the family had hired vehicles to transport mourners, only to encounter such a horrifying situation.
On Wednesday, Mbogo went to court and obtained an exhumation order and headed to Kianguenyi village in the company of police officers to effect the order. Resident s of Kianguenyi village thronged the compound to witness this rare occasion.
Njine’s son Francis Kinyua said his family has to make arrangements for another burial after coming to terms with the fact that they had buried the wrong body.
As for Kigundu’s family, it has now set his funeral for this morning at Kangware village.
Yesterday, Mbogo said the hospital should take responsibility for having acted carelessly, leading to financial losses and subjecting the families to anguish and mental trauma.
Njine’s family said it would pick his body and bury it without ceremony.
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