Family seeks Sh5.3m to collect body from morgue for burial
A family from Nduguni Village in Tharaka-Nithi County is seeking support to claim the body of their kin being held at The Nairobi West Hospital over a Sh5.3 million bill.
Linus Njagi’s body has lain at the hospital’s mortuary for seven months. Njagi died after he was hit by a speeding motorcycle at Chogoria Town on February 20, last year.
His widow Florence Kanyua told the Nation the bill increases by Sh1,000 everyday, even after paying Sh3.2 million after selling all the family property and holding four fundraisers.
“I have been receiving demand letters and calls from the hospital threatening to take me to court for abandoning the body,” she said.
LEGAL ACTION
The widow said her husband succumbed to head injuries he sustained after he was hit by a speeding motorbike at Chogoria market on February 20, 2016.
“I wish I can have the body for burial in order to settle and continue taking care of the family,” she said.
In a demand letter seen by the Nation dated January 18, 2017 and signed by the hospital’s in-house counsel Mahaga Michelle, the hospital has threatened to initiate a legal action against Mrs Kanyua for ‘deliberately and persistently ignoring both requests and demands to settle the matter amicably’.
Ms Kanyua, who is a teacher at Ngeru Primary School, said she acquired a loan to pay the bill and was now straining to fend for the family. Mrs Kanyua has now appealed to well-wishers to intervene and help her raise the pending bills.