Pumwani Maternity Hospital administrators yesterday came under fresh criticism over the mishandling of two bodies that have been missing since January.
Speaking before Senate's Health Committee, Chief Government Pathologist Johansen Oduor exposed administrative gaps made by the hospital before the bodies were submitted for a postmortem at the City Mortuary.
Dr Oduor said it is still unclear how the twins bodies were replaced with the two others, whose origins are still unknown, even as hospital administrators maintain that the bodies belong to grieving parents Dedan Kimathi and Jacinta Wanjiku.
The senators led by Dr Wilfred Machage, Beth Mugo, Zipporah Kittony, and Mshenga Kisasa, were also told that the box that carried the twin's bodies was changed just before the Government pathologist did a post-mortem.
"The doctor from Pumwani said the bodies were macerated, but when I looked at the bodies, they were fresh bodies. I was confused," Dr Oduor told the senators.
The government pathologist also revealed that unlike normal practice where bodies have to be identified before a postmortem, these two were not identified or labelled.
He said he went on with forensic examination on the cause of death after the father, Kimathi, gave the nod.
"The father just said 'ndio huyo', the mother was crying and she did not say anything. Because there was no objection, I proceeded with the postmortem and seeing as we could not tell who between the hospital and the parents was telling the truth, we conducted the DNA to know the truth," he said.
Not related
A DNA test carried out by the Government chemist and certified by the Government pathologist revealed that the bodies did not belong to the parents, and neither were they the bodies of their twins.
Based on these findings, the senators now want to know where the genuine twins are and where the hospital got the bodies of the dead ones that were submitted for postmortem.
The senators asked two student nurses, who appeared before the committee, to explain the circumstances of the birth.
The student nurses said they witnessed a still birth with macerated bodies and they called the doctors for help.
It also emerged that after the mother, Wanjiku, gave birth - she was made to sleep with the bodies for over six hours because she allegedly had to wait until someone else came to certify that the twins were dead.
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However, speaking for and on behalf of the hospital, the Medical Superintendent attempted to blame the media and the parents, who he referred to as cheats painting the hospital in bad light.
These assertions were dismissed by the senators who also did not give heed to his claims that there is a severe shortage of staff at the facility.
“The Press is the conscience of the nation. If they say something, it is because someone somewhere is complaining," Ms Mugo told him.
The committee said gaps in how the birth was handled as well as the mystery of the bodies will have to be re-examined, and want to interrogate all hospital staff involved as well as city mortuary staff who handled the bodies.
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