Families search for loved ones as morgues fill with unknown bodies

Kenya’s public morgues are becoming overwhelmed, not only with the tragic remnants of natural deaths and accidents but also with a disturbing rise in unidentified and unclaimed bodies.

It is now emerging that a glaring failure by state authorities to conduct timely identification processes could be further complicating matters for desperate families searching for their missing relatives.

Some families have had to wander from one morgue to the next, clinging to fading hope, which has pushed them into prolonged agony and horror.

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City Mortuary

Nairobi Public Health Chief Officer Tom Nyakaba has revealed that 354 unclaimed corpses are due for disposal across Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, Mbagathi Hospital, and City Mortuary alone.

“These are bodies brought in from May to October last year only. We have completed the process and are just waiting to dispose of them because they are unclaimed, and the number is growing,” Nyakaba told The Standard.

The Standard investigations unit has uncovered that at City Mortuary alone, there are currently more than 500 bodies at the facility, with over 100 registered as either unknown or unclaimed.

Some of the bodies listed as unknown at City Mortuary include those retrieved from an abandoned quarry in Mukuru Kwa Njenga last year, yet to be connected to their next of kin.

The morgue is equipped with six functional coolers capable of storing a maximum of 184 bodies. However, the daily influx of bodies has stretched its capacity beyond imagination, as it is the only public morgue in the city that admits unknown bodies.

Security consultant George Musamali says state failures are to blame for the growing number of unknown bodies in morgues.

“Ideally, any body found outside a medical facility must be handled by the police, but crime scene management is one of our biggest shortcomings. Right at the scene, fingerprints should be taken for cases of people without identification, and by the time the body reaches the morgue, the next of kin should have been traced,” observes Musamali.

When an unknown body is taken to a government mortuary, physical features, including clothing, scars, and other distinguishing marks, should ideally be recorded first.

Registration system

What should follow is the fingerprinting process.

Fingerprints are then collected and run through an integrated population registration system at the National Registration Bureau. If the deceased had a national ID or passport, the system can match the prints to registered data.

If fingerprints do not yield results, forensic experts may collect DNA samples for further analysis, an exercise that is more costly but usually provided for free by the state in such circumstances.

Last September, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) moved to the High Court to intervene and prevent the Nairobi County government from disposing of 120 unclaimed bodies at City Mortuary, alleging a cover-up scheme by the state.

The LSK argued that the move was necessary to ensure that the identities of the bodies were confirmed through a DNA sampling process before any disposal, to stave off cover-ups.

“This exercise was coming against the backdrop of the Gen Z protests. We had serious doubts; we felt that there was no transparency or fairness to families still looking for their loved ones. We needed to act and stop the process,” said LSK President Faith Odhiambo.

At a time when the nation is gripped by a disturbing crisis—unexplained disappearances and killings that continue to haunt the national conscience—the grim statistics are worrying.

Duncan Kyallo has lost count of the number of times his family sent him to the City Mortuary to search for his younger brother, Justus Mutumwa, one of the Mlolongo Four. Mutumwa’s mutilated body was finally discovered at the facility on January 30.

The discovery coincided with the court appearance of Inspector General of Police Douglas Kanja and Director of Criminal Investigations Mohamed Amin, who had been summoned to explain the whereabouts of several missing persons.

Mortuary records revealed that Mutumwa’s remains had been brought in on December 18, 2023, and it was only after fingerprinting that the state tracked his family.

“This has been the hardest season of my life. I’ve had to endure unimaginable pain and trauma,” Kyallo said tearfully in an interview with The Standard.

“City Mortuary attendants would pull out cabinet after cabinet whenever I requested to search for my brother. I had to endure the horror of seeing some of the most mutilated bodies I’ve ever encountered,” Kyallo recounted.

The family will witness a post-mortem process today as they make burial arrangements for their loved one.

“It’s traumatising to go through this and still not find closure,” he lamented.

Despite multiple visits, it was not until January 30 that the family was informed that Mutumwa’s body had been in the mortuary all along. Identifying him had been impossible due to the extent of disfigurement.

“His face was beyond recognition. You couldn’t tell who he was,” Kyallo said.

Kyallo’s ordeal mirrors the experiences of many Kenyan families searching for missing loved ones during this season of enforced disappearances.

The obvious question for grieving families remains: why are bodies not identified promptly? Why must they suffer the trauma of searching morgue after morgue, only to be told their kin is ‘unknown and unclaimed’?

Countless times

“In the late Mutumwa’s case, I see inconsistencies that need explanation. His brother visited the City Mortuary countless times but was not able to find the body. Where was the body kept? Did it have to take that long for the family to identify him?” wonders Odhiambo.

In a country where enforced disappearances are whispered about in fearful tones, the crisis has exposed troubling cracks within security systems. Police, mandated by law to identify bodies, appear disturbingly lax, pushing families to endure the agony.

In October last year, trouble erupted at the City Mortuary as Nairobi City County officials blocked police officers from delivering unidentified bodies over capacity concerns.

Staff at the mortuary, under strict instructions from City Hall, were directed not to let in any police vehicles with unknown bodies or risk losing their jobs.

“We had no choice,” says Nyakaba.

“Things were so bad towards the end of last year. We had so many unclaimed bodies that we couldn’t keep up,” added Nyakaba.

In Kenya, the responsibility for identifying unclaimed bodies is not explicitly assigned to a specific entity within the National Police Service. However, the Police Service Act does address the handling of unclaimed property, which can be interpreted to include unclaimed bodies.

In practice, when an unidentified body is discovered, the police are typically responsible for transporting it to a public mortuary. The mortuary staff then undertake efforts to identify the deceased, which may include public notices and collaboration with the community.

At the City Mortuary, there are two police officers attached to the facility.

“They control the records at the morgue, and instances of covering up for their colleagues cannot be ruled out when they bring in the bodies,” intimated a source.

The Public Health Act, mandates that no person should keep a body in a public mortuary for more than ten days.

According to Nyakaba, the public health requirement is impractical for City Mortuary.

“Being the only public facility that admits unknown bodies, this might not apply to us. The process of connecting unknown bodies to their kin sometimes goes beyond this stipulated time frame,” explains Nyakaba.

Before disposing of unclaimed bodies, the law requires authorities to seek court orders and issue a 14-day public notice to allow potential claimants to come forward. This process, Nyakaba says, ensures that due diligence is observed in identifying and notifying the next of kin.

While the Public Health Act provides a framework for the disposal of unclaimed bodies, the absence of detailed legislation necessitates reliance on court orders and public notices to manage the process appropriately.