Baringo County referral hospital is set to dispose of 42 unclaimed bodies which have overstayed at the mortuary facility for the past three months.
This is according to the hospital medical superintendent Dr Gerishom Abakalwa who said they have been forced to take the decision after uncooperative relatives of the deceased failed to turn up.
Abakalwa who spoke exclusively to KNA at his office in Kabarnet town on Tuesday noted that the morgue with a capacity of 48, has a total of 57 bodies which they feel could pose a health risk due to preservation challenges.
“That number is overwhelming to the attendants since it leads to breakdown of the freezers and so preservation becomes a challenge,” he pointed out.
The medical superintendent stated that out of the 42 bodies to be disposed of, 33 were for new born who died during or after delivery while nine were brought up by police having been abandoned due to banditry attacks, suicides and other causes.
He said the turn of events prompted the hospital management to successfully obtain a court order for the unclaimed bodies set to be disposed of in the coming weeks.
Abakalwa regretted that they gave out humble time for loved ones to come and take the bodies without avail yet the hospital facility is supposed to receive new bodies on a daily basis.
“I believe that most of the unclaimed bodies are due to cultural myths but why give us a hard time to preserve them for you yet nowadays we have decent ways of transporting the dead and bury them peacefully,” he wondered.
Abakalwa said until the hospital shifts from preservation to chemical embalmment of bodies which can enable them to store up to over 100 of them at room temperature, the situation remains a great concern which should worry every stakeholder.
He challenged relatives to make it a habit of picking the bodies of their loved ones within a week or so in order to allow the hospital to offer better services to other clients who may require their preservation process.
