Would you sign off to be cremated or have a loved one interred that way when they pass? It would cost you only Sh50,000, driving down the massive pressure of funeral costs that millions grapple with in the country.
A majority of families still shun cremation, citing cultural and religious dogma.
Statistics at Kariokor crematorium show that Kenyans are still averse to cremation.
The registration books at the facility seen by the Star show that from November last year, an average of close to 40 families have had their loved ones cremated there per month.
Though Kenyans of Asian extraction top the numbers in the crematorium’s books, Kenyan Africans seem to be slowly adopting the method of interment.
Harish Patel, the lead cremator volunteering as the director at the facility, took the Star in a tour of the facility, showing how operations at the crematorium have improved.
Patel says that over a year or more ago, he would go for two weeks or more before he got a call from a family asking to cremate a loved one.
But this has changed.
He now gets up to four or five bodies to cremate in a day.
“It used to be even a week or two before someone asks me about coming for our service, but lately, say from last year, I can get even five bodies in a day to cremate,” he says.
A majority of those seeking to cremate loved ones tend to be enlightened well-off Kenyans.
“You would expect that those struggling economically opt to cremate loved ones because it is economically friendly. But as Hindu, we respect the cultural choices of people and serve them as such,” he said.
The cultural tension at play on the cremation question is well on display even at the crematorium.
Frank Maina, 48, works at the facility as a cleaner but also helps in loading the bodies onto the burning furnace.
He told the Star that while he loves his job and loves the process, he himself won’t prefer to be interred that way.
Instead, he would prefer to be taken to his home county in Ukambani and be buried.
What is his justification?
“I will want my body taken six feet under in the usual way because of our culture. Also, I will want my children to see my grave and remember me,” Maina said.
He is not alone.
Patel says he has encountered tense situations among warring families, where one side is pushing for cremation, while the other is opposing.
“Sometimes it is the mistresses or other wives of the dead man protesting the process. But once we have obtained consent from the main family people, we proceed.”
The crematorium now has two gas-powered furnaces that are faster in dissolving the bodies to ashes, taking only three hours.
Previously, the mechanised furnace used to be powered by diesel, which is not eco-friendly, and took longer to get the job done.
And did you know that the resulting ash after the body is burnt weighs the same as your weight at birth?
“After cremating a body, however weighty or light, the ash weighs the same as their weight at birth. Once the resulting burnt particles cool down, I collect them and crash them using a machine, weighs them before taking them to the family which they can then keep, depending on their culture and beliefs,” Patel said.
There is also manual cremation involving a pyre piled with logs of wood.
The logs are arranged on the pyre before the body in the casket or whatever other wrapping carrying it is loaded on top of the logs. Another set of logs are piled on top of the body and then industrial ghee is applied on it, alongside sesame seeds.
In both gas-powered and manual cremation, it is family members who press the start button and light the light the fire on the pyre, respectively.
Religious dogma plays a crucial role in cementing cultural hostility toward cremation. It is in fact forbidden in Islam.
Some Christians believe that a dead body must be buried intact awaiting the day of appearance of Jesus in the clouds resurrection.
For Islam, the body need not only to be buried intact, it must be washed so that the dead person enters after life while pure.
Imam Mohammed Habib told this paper in a past interview that a body must be buried intact and never cremated or harmed in any way as it should be respected, whether alive or dead.
“Burying the deceased bestows honour and respect on that person. Harming a dead person is the same as harming the living,” Mohammed said.
According to the Koran, death is not an end but a transformation.
