By REUBEN OLITA
August 1, 2026| Kocholia Sub-County Hospital has been left with no alternative but to dispose of 14 unclaimed bodies—not by choice, but because the facility’s mortuary, built to hold just 16 bodies, is now dangerously overcrowded, with unclaimed remains stretching back to 2024.
Hospital Administrator Evans Okedi told the press on Friday that the decision was driven by a formal directive from the Auditor-General, who flagged the mortuary’s chronic congestion during the last financial year’s audit and recommended immediate lawful disposal to prevent a public health hazard.
“The mortuary was designed for 16 bodies. Currently, unclaimed cases alone are overwhelming the system,” Okedi said. “We are not doing this because we want to. We are doing this because the law and the Auditor-General require us to decongest.”
The 14 bodies—11 adult males, two adult females, and one baby girl—are all police cases that have remained unidentified for more than a year, with some dating as far back as 2024, 2025, and a few from 2026. Despite repeated efforts by both hospital staff and investigating officers, no relatives have come forward.
A public notice dated July 24, signed by Teso North Sub-County Hospital Medical Superintendent Dr. Evans Sumbeiywo, gives families until August 7 to claim the bodies. The notice has been copied to the County Director of Health, the Sub-County Medical Officer of Health, local police station OCSs, and the mortuary in-charge.
“If no one comes forward within the stipulated 14 days, we will be compelled to seek legal authority to proceed with disposal in accordance with the law,” the notice warns.
Okedi stressed that this is the second such exercise in two years—a telling indicator of a deepening crisis, not a routine administrative action. Many of the unclaimed bodies are victims of drowning in Rivers Malakisi and Malaba, or individuals found decomposed in their homes—cases that public hospitals are legally obligated to receive but are ill-equipped to store long-term.
He added that after obtaining the necessary legal clearance, the bodies will be buried in a mass grave in Siaya County, as Busia County currently has no designated public cemetery.
“The real tragedy,” Okedi said, “is that these people died without anyone to claim them, and now we are forced to bury them without names—not because we failed to try, but because we literally have no space left.”