The Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists Council (KMPDC) has declared that hospitals in Kenya have no legal right to detain the bodies of deceased patients over unpaid medical bills. This ruling came after a man complained to the Office of the Ombudsman that a city hospital was unlawfully holding his wife's body over an outstanding bill.

• Hospitals are directed to use alternative means to recover outstanding medical bills.
• The KMPDC ordered a city hospital to release a body held over a Ksh1.2 million unpaid bill.
• The detention of bodies violates Article 28 of the Constitution, which protects human dignity even posthumously.