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By Ishbel Matheson
BBC correspondent in
Nairobi |
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British holidaymakers in Kenya have raised money so that three
Kenyans killed in Thursday's bombing can be buried.
Officials at a hospital mortuary in Mombasa refused to release the
bodies until relatives paid the £150 ( $234) fee.
This petty officialdom was made all the more distressing because the
families could not afford to pay until the tourists stepped in.
The dead belonged to the dance troop which was welcoming guests at
the Paradise Hotel when the bomb exploded.
Funerals halted
The funerals were due to go ahead on Saturday.
The graves had been dug in the dancers' home village and the
relatives had gathered.
![Four-year-old girl Pendo Salim, whose mother died in Thursday's bomb attack]()
Little Pendo Salim's mother was a member
of the dance
troop
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But when
the families went to pick up the bodies from the hospital mortuary, they
were presented with a bill.
They were told the bodies would not be released until the mortuary
fees were cleared.
Help came from British holidaymakers staying at a nearby hotel.
After the bombing, guests started raising funds to help the Kenyan
victims of the attack. It is this money which will be used to release
the bodies for burial.
Relatives are bitter about what has happened.
One man said that Kenyans were suffering more than Israelis - the
original targets of the suicide bombers.
The Israeli military airlifted out their survivors and the dead
within hours of the attack.
The Kenyan government and opposition politicians have also publicly
pledged funds to help those caught up in the bombing.
But this, it seems, still has to reach those in need.
