Mater Hospital ordered to release body of woman detained over Sh3.3million bill
The judge said detaining bodies to compel payment is an affront to human dignity and must stop
The High Court has directed Mater Hospital to release the body of Caroline Nthangu Tito after the facility detained her remains for nearly two months over an unpaid medical bill of Sh3,315,784.
Delivering judgment on 23 September 2025, Justice Prof. Nixon Sifuna found the hospital’s action unlawful, unconstitutional and contrary to public policy, saying there is no legal basis in Kenya for a hospital to assert a lien over a corpse.
The judge said detaining bodies to compel payment is an affront to human dignity and must stop.
In his decision, Justice Sifuna condemned the widespread practice by hospitals of holding bodies as security for unpaid bills, terming it a form of blackmail and coercion against grieving families.
He noted that debts related to medical treatment and mortuary services are recoverable as civil debts and should be pursued through lawful debt collection methods, not through the unlawful detention of corpses.
The case was filed by Moses Mutua and his brother, the biological sons of the late Caroline Tito, who passed away on August 2, 2025 while undergoing treatment at the hospital.
They told the court they were orphaned and dependent on their mother after the earlier death of their father.
Court records show deceased was admitted to Mater on May 22, 2025 and died on August 2, 2025 after more than two months of treatment.
Following her death the hospital presented the family with a bill of Sh3,315,784 and demanded full settlement before releasing the body. Daily mortuary charges of Ksh 2,000 were also being levied.
Justice Sifuna said medical and mortuary debts are civil claims and must be recovered through ordinary legal processes not by holding on to a body.
“There is no property in a dead body, and correspondingly there cannot be a right of lien on it,” he stated.
The court granted a mandatory injunction ordering Mater Hospital to hand over Mrs. Tito’s remains to her sons, on condition that they pay only the accumulated mortuary fees.
The remainder of the hospital bill, the judge held, may be pursued as an ordinary civil debt through the courts. Each party was ordered to bear its own legal costs.
