A Murang'a family is at a loss as to what to do after learning that their son died in an accident following an encounter with Nairobi City County askaris earlier this year.
The authorities are also demanding Sh200,000 before releasing the body, saying the money will cover the cost of preserving the body for over eight months, a post-mortem and other expenses incurred in identifying the body.
George Nyaga of Lower Kakuzi village says his son Anthony Ngugi was a hawker in Nairobi. But the family had heard nothing from him for months.
On January 27, 2023, near the Roysambu roundabout, Ngugi encountered city askaris who wanted to arrest him.
“Eyewitnesses revealed to me that Ngugi, in trying to escape arrest, ran away and three officers gave chase. He was aiming at crossing the busy Superhighway road and escape, when a speeding vehicle hit him dead," he said.
Mr Nyaga says if the askaris had not given chase, Mr Ngugi would not have panicked and blindly jumped into a busy highway in a desperate attempt to escape arrest.
According to the incident report at Kasarani police station, Mr Ngugi met his death around 1:30pm.
“There was an incident that resulted in the unidentified male of youthful age jumping into the busy road. An oncoming motor vehicle hit him [and he died] after he sustained serious head and other bodily parts' injuries,” the report said.
Mr Nyaga said he and his family members did not know about the accident for eight months, and they "thought he was still going about his enterprise in the city".
It was not unusual for his son to rarely communicate with his family "because life had been hard for him and I understood perfectly if he stayed for a long time without visiting or calling," his father said.
Mr Nyaga looked forward to his son's visits and phone calls. But in September, the family found out the reason for the long silence.
On September 24, Mr Joseph Mulwa, a matatu hawker at Junction town in Ithanga, Kakuzi sub-county, was reading the Sunday Nation newspaper and noticed an advertisement about unclaimed corpses that the district was trying to dispose of.
“Without any definable reason, I instinctively found myself scanning through the names and on entry 62 found the name of Mr Ngugi introduced as a resident of Ithanga, which is my village,” he said.
Mr Mulwa says he asked around for anyone who goes by the name of Anthony Ngugi and who has been missing since January.
“It is incomprehensible how everything came fitting in. The deceased’s sister was in the town and confirmed that she had a brother who had not communicated with family members since January,” he said.
The advertisement declared the intention to dispose of 193 unclaimed bodies lying at the City Mortuary and the Mama Lucy Hospital Mortuary.
The Chief Officer for Urban Development and Planning, Mr Patrick Analo, appealed to the public to collect the unclaimed bodies within seven days or they would be buried in a public cemetery.
Under the Public Health Act, an unclaimed body should normally be removed from a mortuary within two weeks.
After Ngugi's sister was informed that her brother's body might be among the unclaimed corpses, her father was informed and travelled to Nairobi City Mortuary.
“To cut a long story short, I travelled to Nairobi using donated cash and spent a week trying to verify the identity of the body. I had to travel from the morgue to Kasarani police station and to the office of registrar of persons for clarification," said Mr Nyaga.
At Kasarani police station, he was told that an officer had taken fingerprints from the body and taken them to the Registrar of Persons Bureau, where they matched Ngugi's.
Kasarani police said they had in turn called Ithanga Assistant County Commissioner, Ms Dorcas Mwangi, in February asking her office to contact Ngugi's family "but no such communication was made to us".
Ms Mwangi said the communication had indeed been sent to the chief of Lower Kakuzi, but it appeared that the locals did not recognise the name, making it impossible to locate Ngugi's home.
But Mr Nyaga said: "That is a lie... the chief is my immediate neighbour and knows all my children by name."
However, he says that is now water under the bridge as “We have finally arrived at a situation where we have a body, mourning and a looming burial”.
However, the family now needs to raise Sh200,000 to bury the body. Mr Nyaga says the Kasarani police station wants Sh5,320 as service charges for identifying the body, while they have also been asked to pay Sh15,000 for the post-mortem. In addition, as of October 13, the City Mortuary demanded Sh185,000 for preservation costs.
“If I was in a position to raise such cash, I would pay up without questioning so that I can bury my son and start the process of healing. But there is nothing in my poor life that can be pawned or sold off to settle such a huge bill,” Mr Nyaga said.
“My only prayer is that [Nairobi Governor Johnson] Sakaja owns up to this grief in my home and accept to unconditionally release the body to me for burial. Were it not for his overzealous enforcement officers, my son might have lived...Just release the body to me so that I can save you the advertised effort of disposing of it in a public cemetery.”
Nairobi Deputy Governor James Muchiri said the matter can be pursued through two channels – legal way and through negotiations, presented as a request for a waiver.
“Regarding claims that officers were involved in the road accident, that is something for investigators. But as of the bill, if the family goes through the provincial administration to help it seek adjustments, it can be done...there is a percentage that can be waived.”
Mr Muchiri added, “This is a listening, sensitive and people friendly administration that will certainly give all our customers an attentive ear and work together towards getting reprieves.”
“The bill can attract a 20 percent waiver. It is provided for in governance. We can also speak as Nairobi and
Murang'a...diplomacy can prevail and [we] get the body on reasonable terms,” the senator said.
