Kenya body fee angers relatives

Kenyan mourners are bitter at their treatment

By Ishbel Matheson BBC correspondent in Nairobi

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.

Little Pendo Salim's mother was a member of the dance troop

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.

	:	Mombasa voices
Kenyans react to terror attacks

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.