MORTICIANS at Mwingi hospital demand Sh. 400 for lack of gloves

 Operations at Mwingi Level Four Hospital Mortuary were on Saturday temporarily disrupted for about three hours following a standoff over lack of gloves at the medical facility. 

Groups of mourners who had arrived to pick the remains of their loved ones were taken aback when the attendants told them their deceased relatives could neither be washed nor dressed as the morgue was facing a shortage of gloves.     

Matters were not helped by the demand by the attendants that relatives of loved ones whose bodies were kept there should pay Sh. 400 so that glove could be sourced from private chemists outside the Mwingi Level Four Hospital.         

The weird demand from the morgue attendant enraged the mourners who insisted that they would not pay a dime more than the official charges. They wondered how a level four hospital morgue could fail to have rudimental materials like hand gloves. They said they read a sinister motive.   

Distrust                             

They remained adamant even after the attendants asked them to go to buy the gloves themselves and deliver them to the attendants if they did not trust them.                       

A standoff then ensued for hours as the mourning families refused to give in to demands by the morticians.           

As the paralysis of operations continued for three hours without any end in sight, the mourners decided to summon the media to vent their grievances.

Once journalists arrived and the mortuary attendants noticed their presence, they hurriedly called representatives of respective groups of mourners into a closed-door meeting where the matter was resolved behind the curtains.   

Although after the brief meeting both sides were unwilling to talk to reporters, the attendants swung into action and began washing and dressing the dead bodies and handing the remains to the relatives.       

STORY By JAMES MUKITI, EDITED By MUSYOKA NGUI