Long wait at the mortuary

• Relatives of Nakumatt Downtown fire victims tell of the agony of having to wait for hours at city morgue

She had not seen her mother for four days, and when she trudged to City Mortuary on Saturday, Pamela Ateka had hoped at least to find her body there.

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Dozens of people milled about outside the building on Ngong Road, waiting to find out the fate of their missing relatives. Hopes were momentarily raised when a Red Cross van arrived carrying two bodies that had been retrieved from the gutted remains of Nakumatt Downtown that was destroyed Wednesday by a raging fire.

Ms Ateka will have to wait longer for news about her mother because the mortuary superintendent would not let people view the remains.

“He told us nobody would be allowed to view the bodies” she said “I have been camping here since morning and nothing seems to be forthcoming”.

She was not alone. A group of seven people seated in the shade mumured among themselves in low tones.

At a news conference on Saturday afternoon, officials involved in the recovery said revised figures showed 46 people had been reported missing, and 23 bodies had been recovered.

Ms Ateka lost track of her mother Rebecca Mukolwe who had left her Kayole home at about 1 p.m.

“She had gone to collect a DVD player from the supermarket,” Ms Ateka said.The DVD was to replace another she had bought last year but which developed a problem..

“We don’t know what is going on,” said Mary Njoroge, another woman looking for a missing relative, said. “We have been here since Friday, and we are yet to get any information from either Red Cross or the government”.

A Red Cross worker, who asked not to be identified, told the Sunday Nation that it would be difficult to identify some of the remains because they had been burned beyond recognition.

Desperate and anxious relatives streamed to the mortuary after it was reported that some bodies had been transferred there on Friday.

As the Red Cross van made its way out of the delivery area, dozens of people began to wail.

Pedestrians and motorists heading west on Ngong Road stopped to see what was happening, causing a huge snarl-up at the roundabout.

Relatives may have a long wait until any bodies are indentified through the use of DNA sampling, which is a long process.
Alice, who would not give her other name, said she had been outside the mortuary since Friday afternoon.

“I am confused. I don’t know what to do” she said. “Nobody is telling us what is going on here. We only hear that the superintendent does not allow us to see the bodies”.