By S, KNA
A grieving family suffered another blow after the body of their departed kin went missing at Embu Level Five Hospital Mortuary.
Confusion reigned at the morgue after distraught relatives and friends of the late one year old Lee Delyn Mukundi, who died a week ago arrived at the facility to collect his remains for burial at their rural home in Kigumo Village, Runjenyes Constituency, only to discover he was missing.
The family that had purchased a coffin and related attires to give their departed infant a befitting burials were surprised when the morgue attendants presented a six year old lad with purporting marching identification sparking outrage from the mourners.
The unfortunate development aggravated the situation as agitated relatives and friends stormed the morgue demanding for the release of the remains’ failure to which they threatened to hold demonstrations in Embu Town until the body was in the hearse for burial.
It later emerged that the body they were seeking had been collected by another family and already buried at a homestead in Kiamuringa area in Mbeere South Constituency.
Kevin Mukundi who is the father of the infant said they were shocked when they found the body missing at the morgue after putting all final preparation in readiness for the burial only to be handed a different body.
Mukundi said the one which they had been given was of a six-year old boy that could not even fit in the small coffin they had brought for their one-year-old son.
Irate GenZs who had accompanied the young couple for the burial took their protests to Embu Police Station, but were sent back to the facility for assistance.
The parents of the deceased were called in by the facility management as things started getting out hand outside the morgue with mourners maintaining they were not going to leave without the body.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Health Chief Officer Patrick Mukavi promised to immediately commence the legal process of the exhumation of the body of the young boy.
He also pledged that the facility was going to cater for the burial once the body is exhumed, as a way of apologizing and taking responsibility for the mix-up.