The Homa Bay county administration has defended itself over complains of corpses being poorly stored at the Homa Bay County Referral Hospital mortuary.
In its admission of the state of things at the mortuary, the county said that the morgue is indeed congested due to the high volume of bodies taken there for preservation.
By Thursday, the facility with a capacity of 15 bodies had over 50 corpses, some in very bad condition after delayed claim by relatives.
The County Health Executive Richard Muga said that the facility handles bodies from four sub-counties, and cannot reject corpses forwarded for preservation, hence the state witnessed.
"This mortuary receives bodies from more than four sub-counties, but it can only accommodate 15. We cannot reject bodies brought here, hence the congestion," he told the Standard.
He added that though the county has other facilities at the Sindo and Rachuonyo South sub-counties, they are not enough to accommodate the bodies.
“We are also going to upgrade the mortuary at Sindo sub-county hospital to accommodate 40 bodies as part of plans to decongest this morgue," he promised but maintained that cleanliness at the facility has not been affected.
He added that some of the counties are yet to be claimed but the county needs court orders to dispose of them.
This is after agitated members of the public on Wednesday took to social media to protest against the situation.