FSJ Christiane Marianne Hospital in Kisii was on Monday literally turned into a temporary court, after a family failed to find the body of their beloved one for burial.
Trouble started after close family members of the deceased, Mr Peter Ondimu, failed to find his body, eliciting accusations and counter accusations between the family members and hospital’s management.
According to close family members, the hospital’s management colluded with a section of relatives to secretly relocate the body to another morgue due inheritance battle surrounding the deceased’s death.
“We cannot be held hostage after bringing our father here. We need justice that can be achieved when the hospital’s management produces the body for burial. We had brought him here and therefore it will be right and in order to demand so,” said Mrs Alice Ondimu, on behalf of a section of family members.
However, the hospital’s management, led by Sister Mary Okoth, distanced themselves from the claims and accused the family members of throwing the hospital into a limbo by associating it with family rivalry.
“We are professionals and no one can make us look bad. As a tradition, the person who had brought the body here came for it on Friday and cleared with us. They should pursue him and not the management,” she said.
According to a source close to family members, the older brother had taken the body to an unknown location to frustrate the family from discussing intrigues surrounding division of the deceased’s properties.
“This is purely a family issue and the hospital should not be involved. They are aware that the elder son, Mr. James Ondimu wants to inherit property owned by the deceased and indeed he is the one who signed the body out,” said one of the family members.