Former Attorney General Charles Njonjo died, according to family reports, at 5am and was cremated by 10.30am. Only five and a half hours later.
Njonjo, who died at age 101, was a man of meticulous English manners. He seemed to have planned his last days admirably.
He was a man of immense wealth and our society ought to learn a profound lesson in the manner in which his last day was planned and conducted by family.
Only a small group of relatives gathered at the Kariokor crematorium to give him a private family send off.
The family, very sensibly, discouraged politicians, who would have made a beeline for Njonjo’s Muthaiga home, ostensibly to get publicity
This is in stark contrast to a culture, fueled by commercial or financial gain, in which even well to do relatives have made it near mandatory to crowd source for cash through WhatsApp groups.
The cash so gotten is spent on expensive clothes for the dead and relatives.
The selfish commercial interests, masquerading as culture or tradition, have to spend hundreds of thousands on coffins, entourage of high-end vehicles all in the name of mourning a loved one.
Njonjo has taught the greedy and selfish and the misguided that you can mourn your relatives with dignity regardless of your budget.
You must not spend millions to make the irrelevant point that you loved them.
