The National newspaper was told that the two containers used to store corpses were no longer operational. One of them broke down last May, while the other ceased to function before Christmas, leaving more than 20 bodies decomposing badly.
A senior attendant at the mortuary, who requested anonymity, said corpses kept in the container were decaying and polluting the air with a terrible stench.
The mortuary attendant said this was because the rubber seals could not hold onto the cushions to seal off air from escaping.
He said the refrigeration system had been malfunctioning since last month, and the corpses were in such a decomposed state that they needed to be retrieved and buried immediately as they now posed a health hazard to morgue attendants and the public.
The mortuary has 16 cool rooms with four trays in each room, for a total storage capacity of 64 corpses for a period not exceeding a month.
The attendant said a tray should cater for one corpse, however; at this point in time, they were piling three corpses on each tray, making it indecent and showing a lack of respect for the dead.
POMGH officer-in-charge of the mortuary Pirika Koivi had an urgent meeting with hospital authorities to arrange for the burial of the decomposed bodies and also discuss plans to contain the overflow of corpses into the mortuary.
