Funerals of Homa Bay nurse, UoN don set for today

The funeral ceremony of University of Nairobi lecturer Ken Ouko is expected to be conducted later today.

The don's funeral was scheduled to take place Friday morning at his parents home in Homa Bay County.

His brother Dave Calo told the Nation that the funeral procession left Nairobi on Friday at dawn and is expected to reach his Nyandiwa Village of Homabay County by 11am.

They had been expected to leave Nairobi on Thursday night to arrive home by dawn.

"We have been forced to adjust our programme and this could extend late into the day," he said.

The body of renowned UoN don who succumbed to Covid-19 complications last Saturday will not be viewed to protect mourners.

"We have been advised by Homa Bay County Covid-19 emergency response team that the body should not leave the hearse when it arrives at the homestead," he said.

Instead of being placed next to his parents' house as is the norm with the Luo customs, the body will be taken directly to his grave site which was dug on Sunday.

Mr Ouko will be buried at the family graveyard next to his mother and brother who passed on earlier.

The Homa Bay County Covid-19 emergency response team will take over from their Nairobi counterparts to ensure safety within the compound.

He died at 56-years-old, bringing to five the number of UoN lecturers who have died of Covid-19.

Nurse Marian

Meanwhile, Marian Awuor Adumbo, a medic who worked at the Rachuonyo Sub-county Hospital in Homa Bay, will also be buried today.

Nurse Marian succumbed to Covid-19 at the Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital on Sunday evening, two weeks after giving birth to a healthy baby boy.

The nurse’s body was scheduled to leave Kisii Teaching and Referral Hospital mortuary at 8 am for an hour’s journey to her for the funeral ceremony expected to be over by 11 am.

Marian, 32, was a theatre nurse at Rachuonyo Sub-county hospital in Oyugis town, Homa Bay County but was transferred to KTRH after her condition worsened.

She had celebrated her birthday on July 24, the same day she gave birth to her first born child.

Just four days after, she tested positive for Covid-19. She died six days later, while in ICU.

Her family and colleagues have claimed her death was as a result of negligence, alleging that no one was willing to attend to her and that she was left unattended for some time. 

“Doctors and nurses at KTRH are on a go slow because they have not received their salaries. Our patient was left unattended from Friday last week with our newborn left to feed on air,” her husband Stephen Okal Oketch said as he narrated his devastation.

Consequently, Homa Bay Senator Moses Kajwang has asked Senate to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.

The Senator has questioned why the nurse had to be transferred to Kisii when all county governments were asked to equip their hospitals with life support machines to help critically ill Covid-19 patients.