In a corner outside the King Fahd County Referral Hospital compound in Lamu County, Neema Pola is seated on a hard wooden bench. While clutching her body, Ms Pola rocks back and forth on the bench, visibly in despair.
Just beside her is the lifeless body of her firstborn child, Eric Ngala, 25, which was recovered from the Indian Ocean in a suspected case of drowning. The mother of four looks completely isolated in her sorrow.
The old, non-functioning mortuary at King Fahd County Referral Hospital in a picture taken on October 31, 2025. The section of the hospital serves as a temporary point for holding bodies.
Photo credit: Kalume Kazungu | Nation Media Group
Due to the lack of a mortuary on the entire Lamu Island, the body had to be placed on the bench at the hospital next to the mother, creating an unbearable and traumatic atmosphere for her, the staff and other patients at the facility.
“You can imagine we’ve spent the whole night with the body here. We’re told there’s no mortuary. We’re now worried the body might start to decay,” Mr Bidii Magwenje, an uncle of the deceased, said.
The family's ordeal mirrors that of many living on Lamu Island whenever they are faced with the deaths of their loved ones. Lamu Island, with an estimated population of 25,000 people based on the 2019 Kenya Population and Housing Census, has no functioning mortuary.
The situation has always thrown grieving families into a state of confusion and burdened them with impossible transport costs every time they lose their kin.
Family and friends ferrying the body of Eric Ngala from Lamu Island to the Mokowe mainland jetty on a boat on October 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Kalume Kazungu | Nation Media Group
Despite the island’s population being predominantly Muslim, there is a significant percentage of residents and non-residents working and living there who profess other religions.
A structure at King Fahd County Referral Hospital, which was initially used as a temporary body holding point because it was unequipped for a mortuary, has for several years remained dormant and closed. A spot check established that some sections of the facility are currently being used as a store.
The only functioning morgue in the entire Lamu County is at the Mpeketoni Sub-County Hospital in Lamu West on the mainland, across the ocean and far from the scattered islands.
Mr Charles Kaberia, who hails from Meru but works in Lamu Old Town, said there is an urgent need for the county government to consider establishing a fully equipped mortuary on the island.
In October 2025, he lost his cousin, who drowned at Shella Beach while swimming. According to Mr Kaberia, they faced a rough time since they were not allowed to take the body for preservation at King Fahd Hospital because there is no mortuary.
“What we witnessed that fateful day wasn’t good at all. And that’s why we’re praying that the county government of Lamu hears our cries and constructs a mortuary within the island. My cousin’s body had already spent three days missing at sea. By the time we found it, it was already decomposing. Unfortunately, we had nowhere to preserve it,” said Mr Kaberia.
Family and friends ferrying the body of Eric Ngala from Lamu Island to the Mokowe mainland jetty on a boat on October 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Kalume Kazungu | Nation Media Group
“We had to do a desperate, community-driven effort, that is, fundraising, to have the body of my cousin ferried all the way to Malindi for a postmortem and temporary preservation as we made arrangements to ferry it to Meru for burial,” he added.
Ms Lucy Kimeu, who stays on Lamu Island for work, said it is always heartbreaking to struggle to move deceased kinsmen from the area.
Transporting a body from Lamu Island to the Mokowe mainland jetty, for instance, requires one to hire a boat and traverse the vast Indian Ocean waters, which costs more than Sh10,000.
One is then required to transport the body by road at an additional expense. From the Mokowe Jetty to mortuaries in Mpeketoni, Malindi, Kilifi or Mombasa, road transport costs range between Sh10,000 and Sh40,000, which is too expensive for most families.
“Why are we forced to rush into burying our people because of a lack of mortuary services in a big facility like King Fahd? We’re tired. We need a mortuary forthwith. This will allow bereaved families time to arrange for decent burials or cremations,” said Ms Kimeu.
Mr Boniface Hinzano, a resident of Madunguni in Malindi who works and lives on Lamu Island, noted that Islamic tradition requires burying the deceased as soon as possible, ideally within 24 hours, which generally makes using a mortuary unnecessary in the predominantly Muslim region.
He however urged the administration to consider how the county has continually grown into a cosmopolitan area over the years.
“We must accept that we have a diversity of religions and therefore, having a mortuary here is crucial,” said Mr Hinzano.
Mr Stephen Kiraho, the Lamu Island Mijikenda Association Chair, said the lack of accessible mortuary facilities in Lamu sometimes forces families into desperate measures, including hasty burials. He stressed the need for the deceased to always be treated with dignity and for care for the bereaved to be considered.
A section of King Fahd County Referral Hospital on Lamu Island in this picture taken on October 31, 2025.
Photo credit: Kalume Kazungu | Nation Media Group
“By providing specialised services such as refrigeration and, when required, embalming, mortuaries maintain the dignity of the deceased and manage necessary logistical and, in some cases, forensic procedures,” said Mr Kiraho.
The situation is further complicated by the fact that there is no public cemetery for non-Muslims on the island.
Lamu Municipality Manager Abdulswamadu Abdallah confirmed that the existing public cemeteries were offered many years ago by individual families for Muslim believers to be buried there. He explained that such ‘public’ cemeteries are not actually owned by the government or municipality.
For instance, the 10-acre Mkomani Cemetery in Wiyoni is historic family-owned land that was gifted to the community for Muslim burials over 700 years ago. The site was originally owned by the family of Maalim Ahmed Bin Ali Ramadan.
“The families who offered those cemetery lands also set aside sections within those public cemeteries as private graveyards where family members only are supposed to be buried at those specific points. For the non-Muslims there are no public cemeteries or graveyards set aside for them within Lamu Island,” said Mr Abdallah.
Lamu Deputy Governor Mbarak Salim, who also serves as the County Health Executive, said plans were underway to construct a mortuary at King Fahd County Referral Hospital in the next financial year.
According to Dr Salim, limited resources forced them to undertake the construction of an Intensive Care Unit ICU first, which is currently functioning.
“We shall do the mortuary in the next financial year. We had to do the ICU first. We have limited resources and we can’t do everything at once. The budget for the intended mortuary is between Sh10 million and Sh12 million,” said Dr Salim.
