Cost of preserving bodies and burying the dead too dear for many
Rwandan families
By Edmund Kagire Rwanda Today
Posted Saturday, July 5 2014 at 10:36

In Summary
Death is turning out to be a very costly affair in Rwanda.
Related Stories
Cost of dying too high: MPs want Rususoro fees lowered
Unclaimed bodies in Kigali pile up amid a high cost of burial
The rising cost of death-related services mean many Rwandans cannot
afford to preserve the bodies of their deceased kin appropriately
pending burial.
Some Rwandan families, especially upcountry, say provincial hospitals
lack mortuary and embalming services while referral hospitals that
have are expensive.
John Ntambara*, 75, a resident of Gatsibo District, died earlier this
month from heart and lung complications. His family decided to
preserve the body to enable his daughter and his son, who live in
South Africa and the UK, respectively, to attend the burial.
For the five days that the body lay at King Faisal Hospital, Kigali,
the family accumulated a bill of Rwf800,000 in mortician services,
which included a daily embalming injection and mortuary fees.
According to the son, Charles Muneza*, the body could not be moved to
Eastern Province because the two hospitals of Ngoma and Nyagatare are
in a poor state, so the best option was to keep it in Kigali and move
it when it was ready for burial.
Cannot afford
"These charges did not include the funeral service charges or even the
hospital bills, which meant the family had to mobilise resources to
meet these costs. An ordinary citizen cannot afford these services,"
Mr Muneza said.
KFH-K however says the figure provided above could have been inflated
or it includes other medical charges because the cost of a mortician's
services at arguably Rwanda's biggest referral hospital is
"affordable."
"I don't think that figure is accurate, unless if it includes hospital
bills," said Praise Asiimwe, the public relations officer of KFH-K.
"If the deceased was a patient at the hospital, the first night in the
mortuary is free and the next day it is Rwf20,000.
"The average cost of embalming is Rwf41,000 per daily injection,
depending on the state of the body. If it is in a normal state it can
go lower than that but even if it is damaged, the injections cannot
cost more than that."
But even then, for an average Rwandan family that cost is not
affordable, especially if the process has to be carried on the body
for many days.
A mortuary attendant at Kigali Central Teaching Hospital (CHUK) told
Rwanda Today on condition of anonymity that the best option for
low-income earners is to take the body on the day the person dies for
a quick burial to avoid the costs.
"Some families abandon the bodies here due to lack of mortuary fees,"
the mortuary attendant said. "There are people who are brought here
without the knowledge of their families, especially those who die in
accidents.
"By the time they get to know about the death, the cost of claiming
the body is too high for them."
Earlier this year, Rwanda Today carried a story in which hospitals
complained that abandoned bodies in public mortuaries, which were on
the increase, were eating into hospital budgets through unplanned
burial expenses.
READ: Unclaimed bodies in Kigali pile up amid a high cost of burial
Dr Theobald Hategekimana, the CHUK director-general, said in such
cases hospitals are forced to meet burial expenses, which affects
their operational budgets.
"We are yet to talk to the government about this, to see whether a
sort of subsidy, fund or law governing this matter can be established
so as to avoid losses," he said then.
Body treatment and preservation services are also provided by private
companies but the cost is higher.
Languide Nyirababeruka of Twifatanye Funeral Services said embalming
depends on the state of the body and that the injection costs between
Rwf20,000 and Rwf40,000 for bodies that are to be buried locally.
The cost of embalming a body to be transported outside Rwanda can go
up to $650,000 — for example, when a foreigner dies in Rwanda. This
does not include placing the body in a hermetically sealed coffin,
which should be done within 24 hours of death.
But even then, embalming services in Rwanda are not of international
standards due to lack of the necessary drugs. It is only done by
injecting a formalin solution into the body.
An autopsy costs about Rwf100,000.
There is also a shortage of storage facilities, especially at
provincial hospitals. The National University Hospital at Butare
(CHUB), KFH-K, CHUB and Kanombe Military Hospital can and provide
standard cold storage and autopsies. However, all of the hospitals are
in the cities.
In recent years, Rwandans have also raised concerns over the cost of
burial sites, especially in the popular cemeteries such as Rusororo in
Kigali, where charges depend on the social category of the deceased.
The standard fee for a burial spot is Rwf750,000 but a grave in the
VIP section ranges from Rwf2.9 million to Rwf5 million. The middle
class, which has three subsections, costs between Rwf600,000 and
Rwf200,000 while the ordinary category is Rwf100,000.
READ: Cost of dying too high: MPs want Rususoro fees lowered
The last category, which costs Rwf15,000, is usually reserved for the
needy, the homeless and unidentified people.
The cost of a decent coffin ranges from Rwf40,000 and Rwf290,000 but
there are some that can go up to Rwf1 million.
(* Names have been changed to protect identities)
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/Rwanda/News/Cost-of-death-becoming-too-high-for-many-Rwandan-families-/-/1433218/2372760/-/cb54y5/-/index.html
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