Justice for the dead: Families sue as hospitals detain bodies over bills

A medic at work at the Intensive Care Unit of the Embu Level Five Teaching and Referral Hospital. [File, Standard] Titus Gathutu Theuri, a Kenyan diplomat who was living in Borehamwood, UK, flew to Kenya for an emergency meeting last year. However, his visit took a tragic turn when he was hospitalised and later passed away. His widow, Beth Njeri, has sued Metropolitan Hospital, not over medical negligencebut over the cost of care. She says Gathutu spent two months in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Njeri told the court that the family paid a substantial amount in medical bills and even offered a property as security to have her husband's body released for burial. However, she claimed the hospital failed to honour its part of the agreement.Njeri is not alone in court. Janet Naliaka Kulembi has also separately sued Kenyatta University Teaching Referral and Research Hospital (KUTRRH), seeking to compel it to release the body of her late son, Ramson Wekesa Aluta, citing her inability to raise the Sh518,368 billed by the government institution. In her case, Kulembi recounted that her son was attacked by unknown assailants on April 18, 2015, and left for dead at Kamae Bush in Kahawa, Nairobi County. She rushed him to KUTRRH, where he was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), but sadly, he passed away eight days later. Kulembi says she has no means to settle the hospital bill and pleads with the court to help her recover her son's body for burial.Although the two women filed their cases separately and may have never met, they are bound by a common struggle - the high cost of healthcare in Kenya. Their court documents reflect the country's dual reality: those who can afford healthcare but are overwhelmed by the financial burden, and those who need care but lack the means to pay for it. In her case before Justice Lawrence Mugambi, Njeri said her family paid PS14,000 (about Sh2.4 million) and offered a property worth Sh5.5 million as collateral. Despite this, the private hospital held her husband's body for two months. "The family engaged the respondent on several occasions, but they rejected multiple payment plans during that period. Each time a breakthrough seemed close, the respondent backtracked on its original agreement and insisted the body would only be released upon full payment," she claimed According to Njeri, the hospital withheld the burial permit, making it impossible for the family to lay her husband to rest. She added that the uncertainty around the burial date made it difficult for them to travel back to the UK. "In the intervening period, all travel arrangements were disrupted, forcing the petitioner and family members to cancel flights and lose travel insurance that had been secured for a specific period, plunging them into further financial distress," she said. According to Njeri, it was agonising to have her husband's body held in the morgue as the dispute escalated and attracted media attention. "The family's and the deceased's inherent dignity - and their right to have that dignity respected and protected - was violated. Holding the body for two months, refusing to release the burial permit, and demanding huge sums despite having received a substantial payment and a proposal to clear the balance was torturous," she claimed. Njeri is demanding Sh10 million as compensation, an additional Sh10 million for alleged breach of privacy, and a further Sh10 million for being treated in what she terms an undignified manner. She is also seeking a refund of PS1,326.98 and PS772.66 for the alleged cancellation of air tickets and travel insurance. Meanwhile, Naliaka, through her lawyer Moses Masai, told the court she had spent two weeks trying to raise funds to clear her late son's hospital bill - but all efforts had hit a dead end. According to Naliaka, the hospital's management had received numerous requests from the family, as well as from local civic, political and religious leaders, urging them to release her son's body for burial and final rites - but to no avail. She claimed that KUTRRH insisted the full bill must be cleared before the body could be released. Her lawyer, Moses Masai, argued that there is no value in detaining a body. "The public interest and public health considerations favour allowing families to bury their loved ones and perform final rites, rather than detaining the deceased as if they were a merchantable product," he said. Masai added that the family's inability to pay the bill had also cost them the right to know the cause of death, as they could not afford a postmortem.Meanwhile, Joseph Waweru Njoroge has moved to court, seeking to compel Ushirika Elite Hospital to release the body of his relative, Alex Gachanga Waweru. In his petition, he argues that detaining a body to compel payment of medical bills goes against public health principles. The cases, filed in different Nairobi courts, highlight a growing crisis - Kenyans remain burdened by runaway medical costs, with some hospitals taking a firm stance on bill clearance before releasing bodies. The number of people turning to the courts for intervention is rising by the day. For KUTRRH, this marks the second time in just a few weeks that it has been taken to court for allegedly holding bodies as collateral. Late last month, Justice Mugambi ordered KUTRRH to release the body of Roselyn Mukoko to her family. She had passed away on March 11, 2025. In the case, her niece, Catherine Juma Omari, told the court that Mukoko had been admitted on February 22, 2025, for surgery but sadly did not survive. At the time of her death, the hospital bill had reached Sh1.53 million. Justice Mugambi ruled that the hospital stood to gain nothing by holding on to the body.

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