• Juma's wife, Reverend Mary Juma on Sunday told mourners that they had tested against the virus and results were negative.
• Mary maintained that her late husband has been battling high blood pressure and kidney complications for years.
The family of the late Bishop Elisha Juma has dismissed claims that the late died of the coronavirus.
Juma's wife, Reverend Mary Juma on Sunday told mourners that they had tested against the virus and results were negative.
Mary maintained that her late husband has been battling high blood pressure and kidney complications for years.
“Everyone knows that he went for a kidney transplant in 2011, yet someone went to the media and said he had contracted coronavirus," she said.
She added, "My husband was supposed to be buried by high people in society who he had associated with, but because of someone's malice, this is what his burial has been reduced to".
Mary said it was unfair for her husband to be buried like someone who died of corona virus.
“I have been with my husband since he was admitted. I am not sick and none of my relatives or church members are. Yet we are viewed as if we are unwell,” Mary said.
Juma died last month, three months after their son Peter Juma died in the United States after contracting the disease.
Peter died in New York in March, where he was working as a paramedic at St Catherine’s Sienna hospital.
Mary Juma while speaking during the burial ceremony in Homa Bay county told mourners how frustrating it was to collect the body of her husband for burial.
She said authorities wanted to have the body buried in Mombasa due to Covid-19 protocols.
“It took the intervention of Interior CS Fred Matiangi’s office to have us transport the body for burial in Homa Bay county. Forces were fighting for him to be buried in Mombasa,” she said.
The widow, who arrived in Kabondo sub location early Sunday morning together with a team of about 10 from Mombasa, was joined by villagers and few relatives during the last send off, which was an event guarded by security officials.
Health officials wearing hasmat suits were on standby to bury Juma, who was the Kenya Assemblies of God Bishop and the president and founder of Power of the word International ministries.
The mourners eulogized Bishop Juma, 64, as a great man, who had touched many through his prayers, both nationally and internationally.
“This is a man who knew God and walked with God and many can attest of his good deeds. We shall surely miss him,” Reverend Ezekiel Abele said.
His widow said she has lost a loving man and the father of her children whom she met in 1977.
“I was 17 years old and he was 22 when we met in school. He expressed intentions to marry me and people thought we were too young. He has never mistreated me and he ensured all our children became graduates,” she said.
Five of their children are all abroad and could not attend the last rites of their father.