Homa Bay County Teaching and Referral Hospital has issued a seven-day notice to the public to come and identify bodies in its morgue, after which it will dispose of 14 unclaimed bodies currently lying in the facility.
The hospital’s chief executive officer, Dr. Vincent Oduor, said that the bodies had overstayed in the morgue and were causing a lot of inconveniences, specifically overstretching hospital resources.
He noted that the cost of preserving the bodies was running high, while at times they caused congestion and unhygienic conditions at the facility.
Oduor said the facility had received the bodies from police officers, having been collected from various sub-counties.
“Seven were collected from Mbita, six from Ndhiwa, and one from Suba South,” he said, noting that some of the bodies were victims of road accidents, while others were retrieved from Lake Victoria. Among the 14 remains are nine males, three females, one skeleton, and a fetus.
Oduor said the morgue, with a capacity of 30 bodies, often lacked space for incoming bodies, greatly inconveniencing families and relatives who came seeking preservation for the bodies of loved ones.
According to Dr Oduor, the facility spends over Sh1.5 million annually on costs of body preservation.
Dr. Oduor said that the hospital had obtained a court order to dispose of the unclaimed bodies should the public fail to come forward within the specified notice period.
He urged community members with missing relatives to visit the morgue and help identify the remains and possibly take them away for decent burial.
By Davis Langat
