City mortuary has decried the high number of unclaimed bodies (164) within their premises and issued a seven days’ notice for the bodies to be collected.

According to the notice issued by the county government, the City mortuary has the capacity to hold only 176 bodies.

Once the seven das notice lapses the bodies will be interred by the Nairobi Metropolitan Services.

115 of the bodies are from March to May 2021, while 49 were from the last two months of 2020.

According to the Public Health Act Cap 242 of the, an unclaimed body should be removed from a mortuary within two weeks or else it is disposed of in a mass grave after public officers obtain a court’s permission.

Causes of death for the unclaimed bodies include mob justice, accidents, arson , drowning , murder, shooting , electrocution, fire , suicide , sudden and natural deaths.

Failure by  police to follow up and bring in reports of the deceased to the morgue after the bodies are admitted and unwilling family members have been cited as the major contributing factors to the high number of unclaimed bodies at the City Mortuary.