Nightingale Medical Centre in Kisumu risks closure for allegedly operating a mortuary illegally in a residential area.
Acting Kisumu city manager Abala Wanga said the hospital lacks a valid public health licence to operate a mortuary.
Wanga said the hospital management has been operating a commercial morgue within a residential area. The hospital is located in Milimani estate adjacent to the Equity Bank Milimani.
A closure notice dated November 11 by Wanga was sent to the hospital director Dr Philip Chek. The notice is follows other statutory documents previously served to him.
“You are hereby required to immediately from the date of this service notice to stop operating a morgue within a residential area,” reads the letter in part.
Wanga said the centre has failed to adhere to the provisions of the Public Health Act Cap 24 and City and Urban Areas Act and the subsidiary legislation.
The notice further reads, “The city manager being satisfied with the existence of the nuisance as per with the said Acts and Regulations, you are in contravention of the said regulations and subsidiary legislation at your premises situated in Milimani estate.”
Dr Chek did not pick calls or reply to the text message sent to him on the matter.
Wanga further gave notice to those operating mortuaries within estates to immediately stop such. Recently, Wanga said the county government is considering a ban on burying bodies within the jurisdictions of the city.
The plans, he said, were underway to pass a law that will prohibit burials in the city. He said families in Manyatta, Obunga, Nyalenda, and Bandani slums were burying their loved ones within the estates.
“This should not be the case. We are working on a bill to be tabled to the assembly,” Wanga said. He said Kisumu City Board will work closely with the County Assembly to enact a law that will prohibit such burials.
Wanga, however, urged residents in slum areas to bury their loved ones in the gazetted cemetery in Mamboleo or take them to their rural homes.
“Everybody who came to Kisumu must be ready to ferry their loved ones home for burial if they don’t want to bury at the cemetery,” Wanga said last Friday during a cleanup exercise in Nyalenda.
He said the city status requires burials in the cemeteries and urged locals to comply once the law is put in place.
Wanga said future plans for the expansion of roads and other amenities in the city may stall if burials within the estates are not stopped.