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Kenya’s healthcare system has carried out a silent, shameful stain of detaining patients and dead bodies over unpaid medical bills for several decades.
Behind hospital walls, suffering has been monetised, grief weaponised, and desperation made a revenue stream. That is why the proposed amendments to the Health Act seeking to end body detention are not just timely, but also a moral necessity.
Across the country, rogue hospitals, both public and private, have perfected a brutal business model. Patients are admitted in moments of vulnerability after accidents, complicated births, and sudden illnesses, only to be transformed into captives once treatment stops.
Families are issued bills running into hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions, of shillings. When they cannot pay, discharge is denied. In death, the cruelty deepens when bodies are locked in mortuaries, accumulating daily fees, turning grief into an endlessly compounding debt.
This practice has quietly mined billions of shillings from Kenyans. Mortuary charges, extended bed occupancy, punitive penalties, and opaque billing systems have enriched institutions while plunging families into poverty. Families end up selling land, savings wiped out, all to “buy freedom” for the living or dignity for the dead. In a nation that constitutionally guarantees the right to dignity, body detention has stood as a grotesque contradiction.
What makes this exploitation even more disturbing is that it thrives on silence and under the watch of government officials. Victims rarely speak out. Shame, fear, and lack of legal awareness keep families compliant. Many accept detention as “normal,” unaware that courts have repeatedly questioned its legality and morality.
Hospitals, shielded by weak enforcement and regulatory complacency, have continued business as usual. The Bill before Parliament promises to disrupt this cycle of abuse. By compelling hospitals to offer emergency services without upfront payment and outlawing the use of bodies as collateral, it restores humanity to healthcare. It recognises a simple truth: illness is not a choice, and death is not a debt. Care should be driven by ethics, not extortion. For millions of Kenyans suffering in silence, this law represents psychological, financial, and emotional harm. It means mothers can walk out of maternity wards without humiliation.
It means families can bury their loved ones without bargaining with mortuary clerks. It means hospitals will be forced to innovate ethically through insurance reforms, structured payment plans, and transparent billing instead of preying on despair.
Ending body detention will not collapse healthcare. What will collapse is a predatory system that has thrived on loopholes and weak oversight. Parliament now has a rare chance to affirm that dignity is not for sale. Passing this Bill would send a clear message: Kenya will no longer allow profit to be made from pain, nor silence to mask injustice.
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By Editorial