The Luo council of elders has opposed suggestions to cremate the body of former Kibra MP Ken Okoth.
The elders say cremation is against the culture of the Luo community.
Speaking to journalists on Wednesday in Kendu Bay, the elders led by Nyandiko Ongadi said the community’s culture and practices are against the charring of a body.
Ongadi said that Okoth was a son of the Luo community whose burial arrangements must conform to the local culture.
“We’re informed that Okoth verbally told his wife that he should be cremated upon death. It’s against Luo customs and I think he might have said it because of the love between them as a couple,” Ongadi said.
He said that Okoth’s wife should not dictate the manner in which he should be given a send-off.
“Luo culture requires that if intermarriage involves our son, the wife should adopt the Luo practices and not otherwise,” Ongadi said.
The elders told political leaders involved in the funeral arrangements to engage them to avert controversies surrounding Okoth's final rites.
“Luo elders are not pleased with the wrangles over the burial preparations. We want political leaders to involve elders to give the right direction for Okoth to be given a befitting sendf-off,” Ongadi said.
He said the elders had begun the process of arbitration on where Okoth should be buried.
He said he had sent the Homa Bay county council chairman Owili Mwai to Okoth’s paternal family in Kochia, Rangwe constituency to get the facts on their claims to the body.
Ongadi said the paternal family had the right to bury Okoth if his late father Nicholas Anayo Obonyo had paid dowry to marry Okoth’s mother Angeline Ajwang’.
Ajwang’ is reported to have separated with Obonyo in the late 1980s when Okoth was a young boy.
“Mwai will enquire if Obonyo paid the dowry or not. If he paid and did not take it back after their separation, the paternal family has a right to bury the MP,” Ongadi said.
“The Okoth's body should be buried in either Kochia or Kasewe within Homa Bay county. We don’t want cremation,” Ongadi said.
Okoth's paternal family spokesman Raymond Mbai on Tuesday said they were ready to bury Okoth because his father paid a dowry of two cows.
(edited by O. Owino)
