Death is inevitable for all, but when it comes, some decency is called for. This is why almost every family goes to great lengths to ensure their loved ones get a befitting sendoff when they die. However, there are people who disappear from home, eventually die and get buried in mass graves without their families’ knowledge.
There are unclaimed bodies in mortuaries, with hospitals seeking the consent of the authorities to bury them. Parents, spouses and other relatives will be praying that their missing kin will return one day, only to find out years later that their bodies have all along been lying in mortuaries.
As the cases of the bodies found dumped in River Yala in Siaya County in recent days have confirmed, there are many families waiting for relatives who set off on journeys but never reached their destinations. Some of the bodies, post-mortem examinations have revealed, had injuries inflicted by blunt objects.
Town authorities are forced to bury unclaimed bodies as they cannot keep them forever. There is no space for that. The saga was brought to the fore on March 4, when the Office of the President published the names of 171 unclaimed bodies in Nairobi and gave a seven-day notice to relatives to collect them.
The relatives of some of the people whose bodies have been listed as unclaimed include a family in Machakos County that was recently contacted over the body of a woman who died 30 years ago. It is the story of a broken reporting system that could have worked well, especially if the dead had their identification papers. The administration should have traced them back to their home villages using the IDs, which have this vital information.
Another challenge is high mortuary charges. The longer families take to collect their relatives’ bodies, the more they pay, some up to Sh500 every 24 hours. Many families can’t afford these fees and yet the Nairobi Metropolitan Services is asking for a whopping Sh120,000 for each. This is a tall order, and the dead will inevitably suffer the final indignity of being piled up in mass graves. BY DAILY NATION