A grieving family was over the weekend left in shock after the driver of the hearse they had hired abandoned the corpse of their loved ones along the road.
The deceased, Anthony Kioko, had died a week earlier at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa and his body was being taken home for burial yesterday.
According to reports the driver was unhappy after Kioko’s colleagues forced him to stop so they could view the body at the Likoni Ferry Channel.
The witnesses said that the driver tried to resist but the vendors surrounded the hearse and refused to give way.
The driver said this was not part of the plan when the hearse was hired. He pulled the coffin bearing Kioko’s remains out of the vehicle and sped off.
Kioko’s widow, identified as Nancy Muthoni, passed out when the driver removed the coffin from the hearse and sped off. She was taken to a nearby clinic for first aid.
The bereaved family had to raise money and hire a vehicle to transport the corpse.
The family said it had hired the hearse for Sh16,000, money that had been paid in advance.
Simon Joseph said his brother, who died of brain cancer, had been selling tomatoes at the Likoni Ferry Channel for five years.
“He was one of us. We even contributed to hire the hearse. Why are they denying us a chance to view his body yet not all of us will attend the burial in Vanga,” a trader told the Standard.