• The family could still not come to terms with what transpired to their son who was the breadwinner in the family.
• He could not understand the circumstances under which his son burnt at the steel plant and where other people were during the entire process, or if he was doing everything alone.
Image: FAITH MATETE
An emotional mood engulfed Kogony village in Kisumu with emotions running high as Caleb Otieno, the man who melted to ashes in a Thika steel plant, was laid to rest on Saturday.
The family could still not come to terms with the death of their kin.
The deceased mother was overwhelmed and could not speak to the media.
“He was everything to us, we don’t know how life will go on without him around,” his father Martin Oraro Odache told the media during an interview.
He could not understand the circumstances under which his son got burnt at the steel plant and where other people were during the entire process, or if he was doing everything alone.
Odache told the media that it has not been easy as a family even with various burial expenses since the demise of his son.
He said he still can’t forget March 25, 2022, around lunchtime, when Caleb’s Aunt came wailing towards the homestead while calling Caleb's name.
“I wonder what had happened because she is the one who took Caleb to Thika where he secured a job. However, when he entered the homestead, others joined in wailing saying my son was no more. I was shocked and dint know what to do”
Image: FAITH MATETE
Odache said that he immediately made a call to Thika where he was told that his son had some accident and seems like he was dead.
“So when we were preparing to go to Thika, I received another call telling me that where my son had an accident, he can’t be retrieved immediately since the boiler was too hot,” he said adding that they had to wait for three days for the boiler to cool before travelling to Thika.
He noted that when they arrived in Thika, they were told that their son had been burnt to ashes and there was nothing left of him.
“It has not been easy for us as the family, from the expenses during the entire period until we managed to finally bring the remains home on Friday night."
During the funeral, emotions ran high even as locals stated that Caleb was still a young man and didn't deserve to die.
The funeral mass was held at a field next to their home with his remains resting under a tent surrounded by family and friends.
Family, relatives and friends visited the tents where they paid their last respect to Otieno. The coffin remained closed.
His brother John Agwambo thanked the media for providing them with the support that has really helped the family.
“We still have so many issues that need to be resolved but as of now, we want to lay our brother to rest first,” said Agwambo
Otieno was the second born in a family of seven.
He had moved to Thika in 2012 and first worked at Bidco oil Refineries up to 2015.
He joined Blue Nile Rolling Mills in Thika where he has been working until his demise.
In the eulogy, his family says that on March 25, 2022 early in the morning, he left his house as usual for work.
At around 12.30 pm, his brother in Thika received a call from a friend that Caleb was involved in an accident at his place of work.
Image: FAITH MATETE
When John and others reached there, they confirmed that Caleb is dead and his body was totally melted.
All operations at the company stopped until when the parents arrived from Kisumu on 27th March 2022 when the boiler was opened with hopes of getting the body.
But unfortunately, the body was completely melted and only a few body bones and ashes were collected and packed in three yellow sacks and kept at the mortuary.
According to the police, Otieno was tasked with feeding metal pieces through a rolling mill into a blazing furnace.
While he threw some of the pieces in on that fateful day, his gloves got stuck on the metals, making the mills pull him onto the unforgiving machine that crushed him into pieces before dropping him into the furnace.
His arms and head were the first to be crushed. Then his liquefied body got mixed up with the melted steel, leaving only countable bone particles at its base.
Thika sub-county DCIO Joseph Thuvi told the Star they visited the facility and collected ashes and particles that seemed like pieces of bones from the furnace.
Thuvi said they were treating the matter as a normal accident at a place of work.
However, there is still a standoff with the issue of compensation.