A family in Kimilili town has moved to court seeking orders to exhume the body of a relative mistakenly picked and buried elsewhere last Friday.
The body of Mary Nasimiyu was mistakenly picked by another family that was also bereaved and later buried at Ndakaru in Bungoma West Sub-County.
The Kimilili family now wants the court to give it the go-ahead to have Ms Nasimiyu’s body exhumed in order to bury her at her matrimonial home.
According to Ms Nasimiyu’s uncle Longinus Wekesa, the body had been preserved together with that of Grace Nakhumicha Wekesa at Dreamland Hospital Mortuary but was mistakenly transferred to Lugulu Hospital Mortuary for preservation by the latter’s family.
Body missing
Mr Wekesa said when they went to collect the body from Dreamland Hospital on Monday, they found it missing.
“We did thorough investigations and found that the body of my niece had been picked and taken to Lugulu Hospital Mortuary by another family and then to Ndakaru in Bungoma West for burial,” he said.
Wekesa said they had communicated with the family that mistakenly buried their kin.
“They were very shocked to realise that they had buried a different person after spending more than Sh2 million to carter for the funeral expenses,” said Wekesa.
The funeral service that was held last Friday was attended by Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka, Bungoma Governor Wycliffe Wangamati, Sirisia MP John Waluke and Bungoma County Assembly Speaker Simiyu Wamusai among and other leaders.
The deceased is the mother of Everlyne Alusa, the director of education in the county government.
Dreamland Hospital administrator Ruth Nabiranda confirmed there were two bodies that were taken to the mortuary on Monday last week and one was later transferred to Lugulu Hospital mortuary.
Court order
“The next of kin, who is her son, took the body on Monday last week but because he was in a hurry, he identified the wrong body and that’s how this confusion came about,” she said.
Bungoma West Deputy County Commissioner Daniel Kirui said the police were waiting for the family to obtain a court order so that they can exhume the body.
“It is unfortunate that the son took the wrong body... the two women look almost identical. We are going to exhume the body once the two families obtain court orders,” Kirui said.
The body of Nakhumicha is still at Dreamland Hospital mortuary.
A Bukusu elder, Job Butalia, said it was a bad omen for the two families adding that a cleansing ceremony should be performed by clan members.
“It is worrying that a man was involved in the identification of a woman and yet the deceased had sisters and daughters. Without cleansing the homestead, the family will encounter a bad omen for burying the wrong body,” Mr Butalia said.
