Embu mortuary hands wrong child's body to grieving family

Mourners protest outside Embu Level Five Hospital morgue over the missing body of one-year-old infant./KNA

A grieving family suffered another blow after the body of their deceased child went missing at Embu Level Five Hospital mortuary.

Confusion erupted at the morgue when distraught relatives and friends of the late one-year-old Lee Delyn Mukundi, who died a week ago, arrived to collect his remains for burial at their rural home in Kigumo village, Runjenyes constituency, only to discover he was missing.

The family, having purchased a coffin and related attire to give their infant a proper burial, was shocked when the morgue attendants presented a six-year-old boy with purported matching identification, sparking outrage among the mourners.

The situation escalated as agitated relatives and friends stormed the morgue, demanding the release of the correct remains and threatening to hold demonstrations in Embu town until the body was delivered for burial.

It later emerged that the body they were seeking had been collected by another family and already buried at a homestead in Kiamuringa area in Mbeere South constituency.

Kevin Mukundi, the father of the infant, said they were stunned when they found the body missing after completing all preparations for the burial, only to be handed a different child.

Mukundi said the body they had been given of a six-year-old boy could not even fit in the small coffin they had brought for their one-year-old son.

Irate supporters who had accompanied the young couple for the burial took their protests to Embu police station but were sent back to the facility for assistance.

The parents of the deceased were called in by the facility management as tensions escalated outside the morgue, with mourners insisting they would not leave without the body.

Speaking to the press after the meeting, Health Chief Officer Patrick Mukavi promised to immediately commence the legal process for the exhumation of the infant’s body.

He also pledged that the facility would cover the burial costs once the body is exhumed, as a way of apologising and taking responsibility for the misidentification.