upepo
Elder Lister
Sunday, August 27, 2023
By Mwangi Muiruri
Nation Media Group
Pathologists and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are accused of running an extortion cartel that rips off grieving families. The two groups are accused of working together to ensure that the cost of burying the dead remains high and that the mourning process causes the maximum amount of financial pain. Interviews with random families reveal that pathologists charge between Sh10,000 and Sh200,000 depending on a family's financial status. A family of a former politician in Kiambu told Nation.Africa: "We were charged Sh200,000 by a public pathologist who performed it in a public mortuary using public equipment and the DCI charged us Sh100,000 to witness the procedure. The DCI, then known as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), had issued a circular in 2009 through its then head, Gatiba Karanja, stating that "our officers who witness postmortems do so only as witnesses and should not be paid by the bereaved families".
The directive had warned that "witnessing postmortems is our duty, no payments should be made. Any officer found to have violated this circular will be treated as a criminal extorting money from the public". But 11 years on, the DCI continues to charge for witnessing postmortems on bodies marked as police cases. These cases include those found dead in suspicious circumstances, as well as accidental deaths and bodies of those shot by police. Police spokesperson Ms Resila Onyango did not respond to our enquiries as to whether the circular remains in force or at what point it was rescinded to allow DCI officers to charge for attending postmortems. The DCI director, Mr Amin Mohammed, also did not respond to questions about why his juniors continue to charge for postmortems, whether there is a tariff to guide the charges and whether the money is national or individual officer profit.
Instead, the detectives have perfected their game of extorting money from the dead, even charging for bullets found in the bodies of suspects shot by police. "Our relative Joseph Kamau was gunned down by police in Murang'a County on 12 March 2023 on suspicion of being a bank robber. The postmortem cost us Sh15,000 and the DCI witness in the case charged Sh5,000. The strangest thing was when we were told that our man had been shot nine times and each bullet would cost us Sh2,000, making it Sh18,000 more," said Mr Waweru Kianga, a relative. He said that after haggling, the DCI reduced the total amount due from Sh23,000 to Sh18,000, which was paid in cash. What remains unclear is why pathologists, who are civil servants, would charge mourners for doing what they are employed to do.
In Murang'a County, for example, pathologists charge between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000 for conducting autopsies at public mortuaries using equipment procured by the county. While the county government has ordered that all payments in its health facilities be made by electronic transfer only, pathologists and DCI fees are still demanded to be paid in cash. "We are here to witness the postmortem of our cousin who was murdered in Maragua town on August 19, 2023. I have read a lot about Governor Irungu Kang'ata saying that there should be no cash transactions in public health facilities but the pathologist has demanded that we pay him Sh12,000 in cash while the DCI officer from Maragua has also demanded his Sh3,000 in cash," said Kevin Nduati, a cousin of the deceased, Wanjiku wa Njambi. On November 3, 2021, Daniel Mwaura, 24, lost his pregnant wife in a bodaboda road accident in Maragua town as she was being rushed to Maragua Level Four Hospital to give birth. "The mandatory postmortem cost me Sh35,000, of which the pathologist took Sh20,000 while the DCI got Sh5,000. The rest was shared by two provincial administration officials and their driver who also insisted on being witnesses," Mwaura told Nation.Africa.
On August 23, 2023, Mr Simon Karongo lost his son Edwin Kibata, 23, in a road accident in Murang'a County."I have been charged Sh12,000 for the postmortem and Sh3,000 for the DCI witness. We have to postpone the burial so that we can raise the money. We have been told that the money cannot be waived and must be paid in cash," he said. Murang'a finance director Kiarie Mwaura said the outcry should be addressed by the health ministry. "Pathology fees are part of the medical services offered in our public hospitals and all fees therein are an individual hospital matter as my portfolio only deals with revenue as directed in the Finance Act. The cost of pathologists is not captured in our current Finance Act but falls under hospital revenue," he said. The Finance Act sets out how the government plans to raise revenue to meet its spending targets for the financial year.
County Health Director Dr Frederick Kamondia blamed the Murang'a Level Five Hospital Medical Superintendent for the fiasco."These costs are better explained by Dr Leonard Gikera, the medical superintendent of Murang'a Level Five Hospital. He is in the best position to explain them," he said. Dr Gikera told Nation.Africa that the issue is being looked into so that the postmortem fees can be clearly stated and the mode of payment defined. However, the county has since ordered all medical superintendents to step down and their positions to be advertised after Senator Joe Nyutu complained of poor and unstructured coordination of health services in the county's public hospitals.
Mr Nyutu told Nation.Africa that "not only in Murang'a, but we as a country need to deal with this issue of postmortems at the national level".
He said that "we need to know what fees are being charged for postmortems, whether the costs charged by pathologists employed by the county are supposed to be county revenue or personal gain and if it is personal gain then why are they being conducted in public facilities...". Mr Nyutu also said that the country's DCI leadership should "come clean on whether they are charging their officers for attending postmortems and if so, how much and payable to whom". Kirinyaga Woman MP Njeri Maina said she would continue to lobby Parliament to set the record straight on the cost of postmortems in the country. "In my Health Amendment Bill (2023) currently before Parliament, where I am seeking legal intervention to criminalise detention of patients and withholding of bodies for non-payment of bills, I will further venture to criminalise illegal charges hidden as postmortem costs," she said.
Ms Maina said she would lobby parliamentarians to take the issue seriously and also summon the leadership of the National Police Service as well as the CS Health to appear before parliament and "explain why postmortems have become an avenue to extort from the dead".
By Mwangi Muiruri
Nation Media Group
Pathologists and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are accused of running an extortion cartel that rips off grieving families. The two groups are accused of working together to ensure that the cost of burying the dead remains high and that the mourning process causes the maximum amount of financial pain. Interviews with random families reveal that pathologists charge between Sh10,000 and Sh200,000 depending on a family's financial status. A family of a former politician in Kiambu told Nation.Africa: "We were charged Sh200,000 by a public pathologist who performed it in a public mortuary using public equipment and the DCI charged us Sh100,000 to witness the procedure. The DCI, then known as the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), had issued a circular in 2009 through its then head, Gatiba Karanja, stating that "our officers who witness postmortems do so only as witnesses and should not be paid by the bereaved families".
The directive had warned that "witnessing postmortems is our duty, no payments should be made. Any officer found to have violated this circular will be treated as a criminal extorting money from the public". But 11 years on, the DCI continues to charge for witnessing postmortems on bodies marked as police cases. These cases include those found dead in suspicious circumstances, as well as accidental deaths and bodies of those shot by police. Police spokesperson Ms Resila Onyango did not respond to our enquiries as to whether the circular remains in force or at what point it was rescinded to allow DCI officers to charge for attending postmortems. The DCI director, Mr Amin Mohammed, also did not respond to questions about why his juniors continue to charge for postmortems, whether there is a tariff to guide the charges and whether the money is national or individual officer profit.
Instead, the detectives have perfected their game of extorting money from the dead, even charging for bullets found in the bodies of suspects shot by police. "Our relative Joseph Kamau was gunned down by police in Murang'a County on 12 March 2023 on suspicion of being a bank robber. The postmortem cost us Sh15,000 and the DCI witness in the case charged Sh5,000. The strangest thing was when we were told that our man had been shot nine times and each bullet would cost us Sh2,000, making it Sh18,000 more," said Mr Waweru Kianga, a relative. He said that after haggling, the DCI reduced the total amount due from Sh23,000 to Sh18,000, which was paid in cash. What remains unclear is why pathologists, who are civil servants, would charge mourners for doing what they are employed to do.
In Murang'a County, for example, pathologists charge between Sh10,000 and Sh20,000 for conducting autopsies at public mortuaries using equipment procured by the county. While the county government has ordered that all payments in its health facilities be made by electronic transfer only, pathologists and DCI fees are still demanded to be paid in cash. "We are here to witness the postmortem of our cousin who was murdered in Maragua town on August 19, 2023. I have read a lot about Governor Irungu Kang'ata saying that there should be no cash transactions in public health facilities but the pathologist has demanded that we pay him Sh12,000 in cash while the DCI officer from Maragua has also demanded his Sh3,000 in cash," said Kevin Nduati, a cousin of the deceased, Wanjiku wa Njambi. On November 3, 2021, Daniel Mwaura, 24, lost his pregnant wife in a bodaboda road accident in Maragua town as she was being rushed to Maragua Level Four Hospital to give birth. "The mandatory postmortem cost me Sh35,000, of which the pathologist took Sh20,000 while the DCI got Sh5,000. The rest was shared by two provincial administration officials and their driver who also insisted on being witnesses," Mwaura told Nation.Africa.
On August 23, 2023, Mr Simon Karongo lost his son Edwin Kibata, 23, in a road accident in Murang'a County."I have been charged Sh12,000 for the postmortem and Sh3,000 for the DCI witness. We have to postpone the burial so that we can raise the money. We have been told that the money cannot be waived and must be paid in cash," he said. Murang'a finance director Kiarie Mwaura said the outcry should be addressed by the health ministry. "Pathology fees are part of the medical services offered in our public hospitals and all fees therein are an individual hospital matter as my portfolio only deals with revenue as directed in the Finance Act. The cost of pathologists is not captured in our current Finance Act but falls under hospital revenue," he said. The Finance Act sets out how the government plans to raise revenue to meet its spending targets for the financial year.
County Health Director Dr Frederick Kamondia blamed the Murang'a Level Five Hospital Medical Superintendent for the fiasco."These costs are better explained by Dr Leonard Gikera, the medical superintendent of Murang'a Level Five Hospital. He is in the best position to explain them," he said. Dr Gikera told Nation.Africa that the issue is being looked into so that the postmortem fees can be clearly stated and the mode of payment defined. However, the county has since ordered all medical superintendents to step down and their positions to be advertised after Senator Joe Nyutu complained of poor and unstructured coordination of health services in the county's public hospitals.
Mr Nyutu told Nation.Africa that "not only in Murang'a, but we as a country need to deal with this issue of postmortems at the national level".
He said that "we need to know what fees are being charged for postmortems, whether the costs charged by pathologists employed by the county are supposed to be county revenue or personal gain and if it is personal gain then why are they being conducted in public facilities...". Mr Nyutu also said that the country's DCI leadership should "come clean on whether they are charging their officers for attending postmortems and if so, how much and payable to whom". Kirinyaga Woman MP Njeri Maina said she would continue to lobby Parliament to set the record straight on the cost of postmortems in the country. "In my Health Amendment Bill (2023) currently before Parliament, where I am seeking legal intervention to criminalise detention of patients and withholding of bodies for non-payment of bills, I will further venture to criminalise illegal charges hidden as postmortem costs," she said.
Ms Maina said she would lobby parliamentarians to take the issue seriously and also summon the leadership of the National Police Service as well as the CS Health to appear before parliament and "explain why postmortems have become an avenue to extort from the dead".
