Remains of melted Thika man to be buried next week

The remains collected from the floor of the steel furnace where Caleb Otieno melted to death in Thika are set to be buried on Saturday, April 9.

Michael Orao, the deceased's cousin who has been speaking on behalf of the family, told the Star that they are treating the burial as a normal funeral and all arrangements are underway.

The remains, ashes and slug collected from the furnace floor, have been preserved at Thika Level 5 mortuary.

They will be discharged from the facility on April 8, and put in an adult-sized coffin before being moved to his ancestral home in Kogony, Kisumu.

A postmortem examination on the remains will have to be conducted before being released from the morgue.

“We are doing the funeral arrangements as normal as possible. We are meeting daily at his house in Kiganjo area of Thika and we are having a larger family meeting this Sunday,” Orao said.

The morgue is charging the family normal rates, being Sh500 for the first six days and then a daily charge that accrues when the six days elapse.

Further, the parents of the 34-year-old man traveled home on Wednesday morning to oversee the burial arrangements at their rural home.

Otieno lived alone and was not married.

The alumni of Kisumu Day High school had worked for the Blue Nile Rolling Mills for seven years.

He worked for Bidco company for three years before that.

The man met his painful death last Friday midmorning when he was feeding metals to a steel melting heavy rolling mill perched on top of a fiery furnace.

His hand gloves got stuck on the metal he was pushing, pulling him hands-first into the mill.

His hands and head were the first to be crushed before the other parts got dropped into the furnace, melting him to liquid.

Police investigating the incident say they are treating it as a normal workplace accident and not as a criminal matter.

(Edited by Tabnacha O)