Homa Bay County explains why mortuary is in poor state

Homa Bay County Referral Hospital mortuary. [File, Standard]

Concerns have been raised over the manner in which corpses are kept at the Homa Bay County Referral Hospital mortuary.

The mortuary, with a capacity of 15 bodies, on Thursday had 50 bodies piled, some in bad shape.

Public health officials warned that the delay in disposing of the unclaimed bodies posed a health hazard to hospital workers.

Four sub-counties

County Heath Executive Richard Muga said: “This mortuary receives bodies from more than four sub-counties, but it can only accommodate 15.

"We cannot reject bodies brought here, hence the congestion”.

“One of the challenges with the morgue is our inability to dispose of unclaimed bodies without a court order,” he added.

He announced government’s plan to expand the mortuary.

The county has two other smaller mortuaries at Rachuonyo South sub-county and Sindo hospitals.

“We are also going to upgrade the mortuary at Sindo sub-county hospital to accommodate 40 bodies as part of plans to decongest this morgue,” said Prof Muga.

He said the congestion had not affected cleanliness at the mortuary.

There have been complaints about the state of the mortuary, with some people opting to share images of the facility on social media.