Body held at morgue over fees finally released after 9 months

A vehicle carrying the body of Snaida Orenge leaves Chiromo Funeral Palour for burial in Vihiga County. [Emmanuel Mochoge, Standard]

The body of a woman which has been laying at a city mortuary for the last nine months due to unpaid bill was finally released for burial.

Snaida Oranje, 28, a mother of two, died under circumstances yet to be established.

Her mother, Susan Musava said she had sleepless nights after learning about the death of her last daughter.

Oranje left their home in Kawangware last December for Garissa to work as a house help.

Three months later, Musava was informed that she had died.

Her employer helped ferry the body to Chiromo Mortuary.

But a week later, the capital city was put on partial lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus and the family could not ferry the body to Ivuva village in Vihiga County immediately.

This led to accumulation of mortuary charges.

Sleep peacefully

“I wasn’t in a position to bury my daughter in three days as required by the Ministry of Health since I didn’t have money,” Musava said.

When the Sunday Standard published her plight on October 4, the storage fee at the morgue for eight months had hit Sh85,000 but Musava was still hopeful she would bury her daughter.

After the story was published, Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi offered to offset the mortuary bill and ferry the body to Vihiga County.

“We looked at how best we can help her and we even visited her house in Kawangware and promised to help her bury her daughter,” said Benson Indimuli, the MP’s personal assistant.

Oranje was buried on November 29. “I will now sleep peacefully after nine months of staying awake wondering what will happen to my daughter’s body,” said Musava.