Drama as City Mortuary declines to receive unidentified bodies delivered by police

Police officers were blocked from delivering unindentified bodies to the City Mortuary in a standoff between the Nairobi City County government and the National Police Service (NPS).

The county government insists that the morgue is filled to capacity, a move likely to impede police work as officers take bodies collected from scenes of crime and accidents to the morgue.

The officers were left stranded for the better part of the day, and were forced to keep the bodies in their vehicles as they were denied access to the facility.

When it dawned, on the officers that they had nowhere to take the body, they opted to come back to City Mortuary at night. But again, they were denied access.

The junior officers had no power and their bosses were forced to get to the facility. They too were denied access.

As City Hall would have it, there is no space at the morgue. They say the mortuary is full, as it currently holds 607 bodies against a capacity of 184 bodies.

Staff at the mortuary were afraid of letting in any police vehicle with unknown bodies, with the directive issued from City Hall putting them at risk of losing their jobs.

One officer was ordered to write reasons why he accepted two bodies brought in by police officers from Ruai on Wednesday night.

After few calls to the county heads, the unknown body after 9 hours of waiting would be allowed in, leaving questions on whether the City Mortuary is full, and where the police take unknown bodies that they encounter in the course of duty.