Editor's Review

A family in Nairobi is demanding the body of their kin that went missing from Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital

A family in Nairobi is demanding the body of their kin believed to have been mistakenly released from Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital to the wrong family.

The family of the late Pauline Wandia, 47, had made funeral preparations and were ready to collect her body only to be told, "it is not there".

According to Wandia’s husband, Jeremiah Nyaega, the body of his late wife was released to another family from Kisii.

“I requested to view my wife's body and was asked to wait. After waiting for too long I became suspicious," Mr Nyaega explained.


"I protested and, that is when I was told the body had been released to another family,” he added.

Body located

Her family said she was taken to Mama Lucy Hospital on October 4 for cancer management but succumbed to complications on October 11 and her body was transferred to the hospital's morgue.

“On Tuesday last week, one of our members went to check on the state of the body and it was intact. But on Sunday when other family members went to view it, they were asked to come back on Tuesday,” Mr Nyaega said.

All the while, Nyaega and his family had been making funeral arrangements. On Monday when they asked to view the body, they were denied access and asked to come back the following day.


The family was shocked on Tuesday when they went to the hospital to clear the mortuary bill and collect the body only to learn that it was missing.

Luckily the family in possession of Wandia’s body was contacted and confirmed the body they had picked at the facility was not of their kin.