The High Court has directed Mater Misericordiae Hospital to release the body of a woman that has been held for almost two months because of an unpaid medical bill of Ksh3.3 million.
Justice Nixon Sifuna, in a ruling delivered on September 23, said the hospital acted unlawfully and unconstitutionally by detaining the remains of Caroline Nthangu Tito, who died on August 2 while receiving treatment at the facility.
The judge made it clear that no law in Kenya gives hospitals the right to withhold the body of a deceased person over unpaid bills.
The case had been filed by Ms. Tito’s sons, Moses Mutua and his brother, both college students. They told the court that after losing their father earlier, their mother was their only surviving parent, and her death left them completely orphaned.
Court papers show that Ms. Tito had been admitted to Mater Hospital on May 22, 2025, where she underwent treatment until her death. Following her passing, the hospital presented the family with a bill totaling Ksh3,315,784 and refused to release her body until the amount was cleared. The charges continued to grow as the hospital imposed Ksh2,000 per day in mortuary fees.
The two brothers argued that the hospital’s actions were not only oppressive but also deeply traumatizing, denying their mother a dignified burial while plunging them into further financial distress.
In his judgment, Justice Sifuna criticized the widespread practice by hospitals of holding bodies as leverage for unpaid bills, calling it “blackmail” and a form of coercion against grieving families.
“There is no property in a dead body, and correspondingly there cannot be a right of lien on it,” he ruled, adding that medical debts should be pursued through proper civil processes rather than through the unlawful detention of remains.
The court ordered Mater Hospital to release Ms. Tito’s body to her sons after they settle only the mortuary charges accrued so far. The outstanding hospital bill, the judge said, should be handled as a separate civil debt.
Each party will shoulder its own legal costs.
