After five months, Naivasha Level 4 Hospital has disposed of 20 bodies in a mass grave after relatives failed to collect them.
The bodies were buried in Longonot Public Cemetery off Naivasha-Mai Mahiu road by county public health officials.
Some of the bodies had stayed in the mortuary for more than six months, adversely stretching services.
Last year, the hospital expressed concerns over the rising cases of relatives abandoning the bodies of their relatives in the mortuary due to the rising cost of burials.
The hospital said it was incurring huge losses in disposing of the bodies every four months.
In a notice that was signed by Ezekiel Bowen for the Naivasha subcounty public health officer, the bodies would be disposed of in a mass grave if the relatives failed to collect them.
“This is to notify the general public and relevant authorities that the hospital mortuary has 20 badly decomposing bodies which have exceeded the 21 days as per the law,” the notice said.
Last year, the county government acquired 21 acres in Mai Mahiu to be used as a cemetery.
The cemetery located along the Mai Mahiu-Namcha road will serve Mai Mahiu and Naivasha residents who for years have relied on neighbouring towns to bury their relatives.
Naivasha cemetery, which is located in a residential estate was closed down over 10 years after it got filled up and residents have been burying their relatives either in Gilgil or Longonot cemeteries.
Despite the county allocating millions for the cemetery, efforts to get land had hit the wall due to opposition from members of the communities opposed to a cemetery next to their farms.
