Kericho Family Protests In Morgue After Discovering Kin's Body Was Released To Different People Who Buried It

• A family from Belgut, Kericho county, is preparing to exhume a body they buried after mistaking it for their kin
• The body in question had been preserved at the Lazarus Funeral Home attached to the Siloam Hospital
• The mix-up was discovered after the relatives showed up to pick it only to learn it had been ferried to Seretut

A family was infuriated after learning their kin whose body they had gone to pick at Siloam Mortuary had been released and even buried.

The body of Kipkoros Mutai was lying at the facility as his family finalised his send-off arrangements.

Mix-up at Kericho morgue

The bereaved family was, however shocked after learning the body they were handed for burial was not of their kin.

"When we arrived here to fetch our kin's body, we were shocked it was not him. We used many features; first was the face which was not familiar to us. The ears were not pierced as we expected," said a family member.

The hospital learned the blunder committed following the release of the body to a different family that buried it in Seretut, Belgut constituency, NTV reported.

The body of the Seretut family still lies in the morgue.

The director of the 200-bed facility Franklin Bett, admitted to the blunder and went ahead to apologise to the two families.

He, however appeared to lay the blame on the Seretut family for not being keen when picking their kin's body for burial.

"I want to underline that the person normally is asked to identify whom they have come to pick, and it requires attention and clarity in the inspection. I'm sorry to say that the team from Seretut may not have been so keen on their person. Otherwise, they would have recognised that the body was not theirs," said Bett.

Bett said that the process to exhume the body had been started, and the family that had buried the wrong body was following up on an affidavit before securing the court order to proceed with the exhumation.

The family in Belgut said they had spent a lot on the burial, stating that they were not in a position to undertake further costs that entail exhumation and returning of the body to the mortuary and taking the right body for burial.

Kakamega family buries wrong body

Similarly, a family in Elwai, Navakholo constituency of Kakamega county, was forced to exhume the body of a non-relative person they buried.

According to the family, their kin died at home on July 23 after a long illness and was taken to the Kakamega mortuary.

They collected the body from the mortuary on July 29 and buried it the following day.

The family learned they had swapped Emanuel Shamwata's body with another belonging to Emanuel Shiyonga.

The names might have caused confusion.

"Those sent to pick the body from the mortuary were afraid to go inside the room; they shared the name of their person to the mortuary attendant who brought the body ready for burial; they didn't care to confirm it," Meshark Ambundo, son to the deceased said.