To cremate or not: Vihiga family to bury ashes of cremated kin
The late Daniel Etisi, 82, who died in New Jersey, USA on November 30 last year and was cremated according to his wish amid discontentment from the family. With him in this photo is the wife, Grace Amiana, who says the family at Ebulonga village in Emuhaya, Vihiga County is now planning a mock burial.
A family in Vihiga County is irked by the decision of its kin to be cremated abroad and is now planning a mock burial ceremony that will see an empty coffin buried in his place.
Daniel Etisi, 82, died in New Jersey, US on November 30 last year and was cremated according to his wish.
His family at Ebulonga village in Emuhaya, Vihiga has been waiting for his ashes to arrive in the country to enable it conduct a burial service, complete with rites that are usually done when the body is physically present.
Ms Grace Amiana, the wife of the deceased, said the burial is now set for January 20 after the ashes arrived in the country on January 9, more than a month since he passed away.
No mourner will be allowed to view the ashes.
The rare burial, and the first of its kind in the region is yet another sign that most African families have not embraced cremation as a way of sending off the dead in the modern times.
Ms Amiana picked the ashes at Kisumu International Airport on January 11.
She said the ashes will be placed in the coffin on the burial day and the photograph of the late husband put on the top of the casket for mourners to view.
Ms Amiana said she did not approve of cremation when her husband informed her of his wish.
"Personally, as the wife, I received his wish to be cremated with a heavy heart. When he told me about it before he died, I disapproved. This made him not to explain further after realising I was not in agreement with him," said Mrs Amiana.
She went on: "We are going to buy a coffin and place the ashes in it and close it. We will then place his photograph on it for people to view it as though they are seeing his body."
"It will be a normal burial rite that we are all used to. I received his body (the ashes) at Kisumu international airport on January 9," she added.
Born December 16, 1939, the deceased is a polygamous man and had four children.
The first wife, identified as Helena Etisi, lived with him in New Jersey, USA, while Mrs Amiana stayed at the deceased's ancestral village which he frequented.
Ms Amiana said all the children of the deceased are living in USA where they went to pursue their studies.
They attended the cremation service of their father and Mrs Amiana said they will not be attending the burial rites at the village in Vihiga County.
Ms Amiana described her late husband as loving and a great educationist.
"He loved education and never forgot his rural community of Elukongo," she said, mourning his demise as a great loss.
The late Etisi is the founder of Naomi ECDE centre in Emuhaya and the wife said he begun the institution to help nurture young children.
In 2019, the practice of cremation caused a national debate after the family of former Kibra MP Ken Okoth differed over fulfilling his wish to be cremated or conducting a normal burial ceremony.
At the time, Okoth’s mother - Angelina Ajwang’ - planned to travelled back to her Ogenga village home in Kasipul-Kabondo after her son was cremated against her wish.
She planned to bury a banana trunk in the place of her son but the decision was later abandoned owing to the cultural dilemma that the family found itself in following Okoth's cremation.
