The mystery surrounding the disappearance of a seven-month-old baby’s body from the Nakuru Level Five Hospital morgue has deepened, prompting the suspension of five mortuary workers.
Baby Mercy Chepng'eno's body went missing on February 6 just hours after her parents, Daniel Kipchirchir and Sharon Saidi, a deaf couple, were informed of her death.
On Tuesday, it emerged that more than five county employees are facing potential arrest and prosecution over the incident that happened at the largest referral hospital in the South Rift region.
“The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has completed its investigation and forwarded the case file to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) for further action, including arrests and prosecution,” revealed Nakuru County Secretary and Head of Public Service Samuel Mwaura.
The officials believed to be involved in the disappearance include the five mortuary attendants who have been suspended as part of an internal disciplinary process.
"On behalf of the Nakuru County Government, we apologise to the family and are working with the police to speed up investigations into the matter," Dr Mwaura told Nation.Africa.
Protests in Nakuru over mysterious disappearance of child's body from mortuary
The case has drawn widespread public attention as the DCI investigates how the body could disappear from the mortuary of such a prominent hospital.
“We have forwarded our file to the ODPP for further recommendations. More people believed to have been involved in the matter face arrests and prosecution," said a senior detective from the DCI who corroborated Dr Mwaura’s statement.
The disappearance of the baby’s body has raised serious questions about the security protocols at the hospital.
Dr Mwaura and the hospital management have both acknowledged a lapse in security and pledged to reinforce measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
Sharon Saidi during an interview at the Nakuru County Referral Hospital Mortuary on 8 February 2025. The couple, who are speech and hearing impaired, are demanding that the mortuary official produce the body of their seven-month-old Mercy Chepng'eno after they missed her in the morgue where she was kept.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation
“We apologize to the family and the public over the security lapses that led to the disappearance of the body. But we have since heightened security at the facility, including entry and exit points,” Dr Mwaura assured the public.
The questions surrounding the incident have been difficult to ignore for the public and detectives, especially since the hospital is equipped with CCTV cameras, including those at the entrance and exit of the mortuary.
Although the hospital medical superintendent Dr James Waweru says that the hospital has functional CCTV cameras at strategic places, independent investigations by Nation.Africa have found that many of the CCTV cameras are not functioning properly.
The Nation for instance established that the CCTV cameras placed at the entrance of the mortuary near the incomplete trauma centre are faulty and this has been the situation for a couple of months.
Despite these issues, detectives investigating the case managed to retrieve footage from functioning cameras located in other parts of the facility, but it remains unclear how this gap in security was allowed to occur.
Seven-month-old Mercy Chepng'eno, whose body went missing at the Nakuru County Referral Hospital mortuary on February 8, 2025.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation
The deaf couple who had been informed of their baby’s death arrived at the mortuary on February 6 to collect the body for burial in their home in Bomet County.
However, they were told to wait as mortuary attendants searched for the body.
After two hours, they were informed that they had found the body but that it was too stiff to be dressed. They were told to wait longer, but later, they were told the body had gone missing.
The family and church members returned to the hospital on February 7 but they were shocked the body was yet to be found.
"We are deeply heartbroken by the ordeal and hope investigators will help us unravel the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the body of our daughter, if indeed she died,” said the father Kipchirchir through an interpreter.
According to the couple, their child was admitted to the hospital days earlier and was diagnosed with severe pneumonia before she was declared dead.
Despite the hospital's confirmation that Mercy had died and was certified, the couple still harbors doubts. They claim that their child may not have died and that her body could have been stolen or sold by rogue hospital officials.
"The doctor confirmed that the baby died and it was certified. We know the doctor and the mortuary attendant who were involved in the incident and they even put a sticker on the baby's face when she died," Dr Waweru said in a previous interview.
The medical superintendent says the hospital management suspects there was a body mix-up and that another family might have mistakenly taken the body that did not belong to them.
"Before the body went missing, five other bodies of children had been taken by various families from the mortuary," said Dr Waweru.
However, this explanation raises more questions than answers, especially since the hospital management has not been able to produce any other unclaimed bodies that could explain the mix-up.
The case has sparked public outrage and Nakuru leaders including Nakuru Senator Tabitha Keroche demanding a thorough investigation.
"This is a gross act of negligence. How can a body just go missing from the mortuary? It is a failure by the hospital management,” said Senator Keroche, who called on the DCI and other investigative agencies to speed up the probe.
