Family sues hospital after kin’s body ‘stolen’

A family wants the court to issue a warrant of arrest for a hospital administrator where a body was allegedly “stolen” and buried despite a court injunction.

Prisca Gona and her brothers John Kalama and George Gona filed a fresh suit before Malindi Senior Principal Magistrate Silvia Wewa, demanding that the body of her son Raphael Gona be exhumed and contempt orders issued against the administrator of Star Hospital mortuary.

They want the court to find that the hospital acted in contempt by allowing a litigant to take away the body against a High Court order.

Raphael, 32, died in January but a row pitting his parents — Ms Gona and Timothy Mwambogo — saw the body stay at the mortuary for five months. 

Mr Mwambogo and Gona parted ways two years after their child was born, with the mother taking custody of the minor.

Early this year, Mr Mwambogo obtained orders from a magistrate’s court to bury his son, but the mother obtained restraining orders in the High Court.

The High Court ordered that the body be kept at the mortuary until the dispute was heard and determined.

“It was contempt for Dr Ahmed Nurein and respondents to go against the spirit of the court ruling. We want the body exhumed and returned to the mortuary until the appeal is heard and determined,” said lawyer Maurice Kilonzo for the appellants.

But the hospital, through lawyer Steve Obaga, argued it was never party to the suit between Mwambogo and his former partner. A ruling will be made on May 27.