Nairobi’s oldest funeral home on its death bed
The gate to Nairobi Mortuary now called City Funeral Home. Facilities are run down the biggest mortuary in the city. Photo | FILE
What you need to know:
- Cold rooms are not working and machines are obsolete.
- The Morgue’s current capacity is 160 bodies with an average of 18 bodies being brought in per day.
- Normally there are more than 200 at any given time with most bodies being brought in by the police.
Services at the City Mortuary, recently renamed Nairobi City Funeral Home, are almost grinding to a halt, thanks to the rundown facilities.
A letter written by the Acting Funerals superintendent Sammy Nyongesa to the Medical Officer of Health paints a grim picture.
Cold rooms are not working and machines are obsolete. “Out of the 14 machines, only four are functional and they break down frequently because of overload,” Mr Nyongesa wrote.
“Doors are worn out. There are no rubbers to regulate temperatures in the five chambers where bodies are preserved. All handles leading to cold air leakages are broken,” it adds.
The officer also said there has never been a contractor to service or maintain the machines from April 2012.
The revelations come days after the county medical officer Robert Ayisi called on residents to embrace cremation to save on space at the mortuary, cemetery and for health purposes.
According to him, cremation is the best solution to the lack of new burial sites at the Langata cemetery.
“Cremation is not only cheap but is quite hygienic compared to the traditional way of disposing of bodies which is Burial,” Dr Ayisi said.
The Morgue’s current capacity is 160 bodies with an average of 18 bodies being brought in per day. Normally there are more than 200 at any given time with most bodies being brought in by the police.
Most of these are never collected in good time. The officer said that on the average, a body takes 30 days while relatives fund raise in order to either ferry them upcountry or bury them at the public cemetery.
Last week, Dr Kidero said he was setting aside sh50 million towards the construction of a new morgue outside the city centre to ease pressure of the existing one.
“We will make sure that the new facility is also fitted with ultra-modern facilities to ensure that best health, safety and environmental standards are maintained at all times,” he said.
He stated that City mortuary brings about sh30 million a year in terms of revenue yet the county spends sh300 million to run it, this being ten times of the returns.
