City Affairs

Kenyatta National Hospital to dispose of unclaimed bodies, including 328 babies

Kenyatta National Hospital to dispose of unclaimed bodies, including 328 babies. Photo:KNH

By Maureen Kinyanjui | Friday, June 28, 2024

Public health officials over the years expressed concern over the increasing number of unclaimed bodies

Members of the public have seven days to identify and collect 395 unclaimed bodies from Kenyatta National Hospital.

This comes after the institution issued a seven-day warning on June 25, 2024, stating that if the bodies are not claimed, the mortuary will dispose of them.

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According to the notice, if the bodies are not claimed within seven days, they will be disposed of.

"Pursuant to Public Health Act Cap 242 [Subsidiary: Public health (Public mortuaries) Rules, 19911 (2). Interested members of the public are therefore requested to identify and collect the bodies within 7 days failure to which the hospital will seek authority from courts to dispose of them," reads the notice in part.

Out of the 395 unclaimed bodies at the hospital: 328 are babies, 48 adults, and 19 fetuses.

KNH has provided a list of names, genders, and tag names of the bodies urging the public to identify the bodies soon.

Public health officials over the years expressed concern over the increasing number of unclaimed bodies

Between 2003 and 2006, the City Mortuary disposed of 2,500 unclaimed bodies. The number for KNH was 3,000.

In 2006 Kenya's two main public mortuaries (City Mortuary and Kenyatta National Hospital Mortuary) lost millions in uncollected revenue from unclaimed bodies.

Disposal of bodies

Cap 242 of the Public Health Act says an unclaimed body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks, or it should be disposed of in a mass grave after public officers obtain the court's permission.

Various hospitals across Nairobi County have continued to bear the burden of preserving unclaimed bodies in their facilities.

In April this year, Nairobi County notified its residents that they had seven days to identify the bodies of their loved ones lying at the City Mortuary, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and Mbagathi Hospital mortuaries.

Failure to do so within this time frame will result in the Nairobi County Government disposing of all the 185 unclaimed bodies.

City Mortuary had 130 unclaimed bodies, Mbagathi Hospital Mortuary had 38 and Mama Lucy Hospital Mortuary had 17.

The unclaimed bodies have accumulated in the mortuaries between September 2021 and December 2023, with their registrations stemming from multiple police stations.