Family sues a Nairobi hospital for detaining their fathers body

A family has moved to court seeking orders compelling a hospital in Nairobi to release the remains of their father, claiming they have no means to settle an outstanding bill of over Ksh.1 million.

Amos Gacheru and Anthony Mwangi say they took their father Phillip Gacheru for treatment at Nairobi Women’s Hospital where he was admitted for two days.

After two days of admission they allegedly observed that the hospital was not sufficiently taking care of their patient yet the hospital bill was skyrocketing. Therefore, they asked the hospital for a referral letter to Kenyatta National Hospital.

In the court documents, they say the hospital declined to refer their sick dad on grounds that the hospital bill had not been settled.

“The hospital failed to treat the patient until fees were paid and the non –treatment continued from 19th March 2018 to 7th April 2018 when the patient passed on,” says the family.

They further claim that after their father passed on, they requested for the release of his body but the hospital asked them to clear the bill first.

It is their argument that they have no means to pay the bill as they had made a payment of Ksh.150,000 which, according to them, depleted their resources.

In the court documents, the family wants the hospital stopped from demanding money from them since they never provided satisfactory treatment to the deceased, and that the alleged fees accumulated when the family had requested for referral but the hospital declined to discharge the patient.

The petitioners say they require the remains of the deceased so that they can exercise their cultural right to bury their father.

They argue that if the hospital continues detaining the body in their facility then the mortuary fee will continue to accumulate adding that it will further delay the burial.