• Daughters have lost both parents, recently their father. They can't claim the body without paying Sh2.3 milion to Mater Hospital. Storage is Sh1,600 per day.
• They say they seek closure. "Until you have the burial, its like you are still in the hospital," one daughter says.
Image: COURTESY
Two jobless orphaned women are pleading with Mater Hospital to release the body of their father held on ice over a Sh2.3 million bill.
Maureen Muchiri, 25, is out of work and Angela, 22, is still in college. They live in Nairobi.
Maureen told the Star that as neither has income, they cannot even discuss a payment plan with the hospital. They seek a waiver of the bill or donations from well-wishers.
Their parents left no assets or money, they say. The last of their father's salary was used to pay Angela's college fees.
"We are confused and exhausted. We have nothing and we ask the hospital to please give us the body of our dad,” Maureen told the Star.
Efforts to obtain a comment from the hospital were unsuccessful. Three calls to the communications department on Tuesday were not answered.
The daughters said they seek closure.
"Until you have the burial, it's like you are still in the hospital," she said.
Their father, James Muchiri, died at the hospital on July 5.
It's not the first case for this family.
Their mother, Rosemary Wambui, was admitted at the hospital in 2018 when she was suffering from leukemia. She died, leaving a bill of more than Sh1.2 million.
To be given their mother's body to bury, Mater demanded Mucheri settle the bill in total or have instalments deducted from his salary.
Numerous funds drives failed to raise much money, so Muchiri agreed to have funds deducted from his salary so he could bury his wife of 24 years.
Muchiri was then an accountant for the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute. He had worked there for 32 years.
This year, two years later, 53-year-old Muchiri suffered a stroke and died after a month in hospital. The bill was Sh3.3 million.
They are yet another family bankrupted by sickness and hospital bills.
Fundraisers - mainly based on social media appeals because of Covid-19 - have not yielded much. Together with NHIF, the bill has been reduced by Sh1 million. But morgue fees rise by the day.
The wider family has tapped all resources to no avail. Their father's body is still on ice at Mater Hospital's morgue, storage is Sh1,600 per day.
The daughters and family asked the Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council for help. It wrote to the hospital, stating the detention was unethical and illegal.
Chief executive Daniel Yumba on August 3 urged the hospital to "release the body for interment and thereafter use alternative means to recover the outstanding amount from the family.”
The plea was unsuccessful.
The family also sought the help of MP James Gakuya, who wrote to the hospital requesting a 50 per cent waiver of the bill, release of the body and development of a formula to recover the balance.
There was no response, the family said.
(Edited by V. Graham)