Kenyatta National Hospital has announced that it will dispose of 124 unclaimed bodies if they are not collected in the next seven days.
In a statement on Tuesday, KNH requested the public to visit its Farewell Home and identify their kin before it seeks authority to dispose of the bodies.
“Kenyatta National Hospital is in possession of a number of unclaimed bodies at its Farewell Home,” the statement read.
“Pursuant to Public Health Act Cap 242 [Subsidiary Legislation Public Health (Public Mortuaries)Rules,1991], 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 the courts to dispose them.”
The list of unclaimed bodies includes deceased persons of various ages and genders, including infants and adults.
The list includes the deceased's gender and tag numbers to assist in identification.
According to the Public Health Act 242 (Public Mortuaries), any person who keeps the dead in a public morgue for more than 10 days shall pay to the Medical Officer of Health a penalty of one hundred shillings for each day the body remains uncollected.
If a body remains unclaimed for 21 days, the hospital is allowed to dispose of it as long as they have court orders and have given a 14-day public notice.
Various hospitals across the country have continued to bear the burden of preserving unclaimed bodies in their facilities.
In April, Nakuru issued a 21-day public notice to dispose of 59 bodies which had remained unclaimed for three months in public morgues in two major hospitals in the County.
The notice indicated that the bodies lay at the County Referral and Teaching Hospital Mortuary and Annex PGH Public Mortuary.
“The following 15 adults and 22 infants unclaimed bodies are at the Public Mortuary (Annex PGH), and a further 22 adult bodies at Nakuru Teaching and Referral Hospital Mortuary from the state of admission,” the notice read.
In February, the Nairobi County government issued a seven-day notice for the collection of 236 unclaimed bodies, warning that they will be disposed of if not claimed.
Then, the county stated that 218 bodies were at the Nairobi City Mortuary, while 18 were at Mama Lucy Kibaki Funeral Home.
The unclaimed bodies were linked to various causes of death, including accidents, suicide, mob justice, drowning, shooting incidents, homicide, and natural causes.
