Tension and confusion engulfed Embu Level Five Hospital on Monday morning after a grieving family claimed that the body of their one-year-old son could not be traced at the facility’s mortuary.
The family of Lee Delyn Mukundi had arrived at the hospital to collect his remains ahead of burial at their rural home in Kigumo Village within Runyenjes Constituency.
However, mortuary attendants were reportedly unable to produce the body, triggering outrage among relatives and mourners who demanded immediate clarification from hospital management.
According to the family, the situation took a disturbing turn when they were shown a different body. Speaking to journalists, the child’s father, Kevin Mukundi, said they immediately realized there had been a mix-up.
“When we inspected the body, we knew it was not ours. It was the body of a six-year-old boy, yet our son was only one year old. It could not even fit into the small coffin we had prepared,” he said.
Reports later indicated that the child’s body had allegedly been mistakenly released to another family and buried in the Kiamuringa area of Mbeere South, compounding the family’s anguish.
Angry relatives briefly sought assistance at Embu Police Station but were referred back to the hospital for administrative action, a move that further heightened emotions at the scene.
Embu County Chief Officer for Health, Patrick Mukavi, confirmed the mix-up and stated that legal procedures had been initiated to allow for the exhumation of the wrongly buried body for proper identification.
He added that the county government would meet the burial expenses as the affected family waits for the matter to be resolved.
The incident has sparked concern among residents, with calls for accountability and improved systems at the county health facility to prevent similar occurrences in the future.
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