Kenyans online have castigated calls by the Luo council of elders asking Monica Okoth , the widow of the late Kibra MP Ken Okoth to be inherited.
The council of elders had demanded that the widow visits Okoth’s maternal home for some rituals as well as to show them the will where Okoth had said that his body be cremated. Led by chairman, Nyandiko Ongadi,the elders said that this would wishes after the death of the MP.
They also asked for attendance as they buried a banana stalk which is a a tradition where the body was bot available for burial.
“When a body is not buried, a banana stem is buried to symbolise the same. All family members should be present at that ceremony,” Mr Ongadi said.
Kenyans were not amused with the councils calls and expressed their displeasure in the unusual tradition.
Here are some reactions from Kenyans on the unusual demands from the council of elders:
No longer are we slaves to our backward culture and traditions.
— KIRUI (@KiruiBriann) August 4, 2019
Nonsense. Kwendeni huko. Stop stressing the widow. Let her grieve in peace, she has and still going through much. Let her be
— Марк Филипп (@markphilo) August 4, 2019
The Luo Council of Elders exists in the media and political imagination. Beyond that, their power on the Luo community is zilch. Similarly, the wife inheritance practice is no longer a community norm and many choose not to observe it with no consequence.
— Bernard Onyango (@OnyangoAdede) August 4, 2019
In other words the widow has no second chance to love-life & has to be humiliated further by being dictated on whom to marry?! Wacha hio chira inishike! Bafoon.
— 𝓛𝔂𝓭𝓲𝓪𝓱 𝓚𝓲𝓷𝔂𝓪𝓷𝓳𝓾𝓲-𝓞𝓭𝓱𝓲𝓪𝓶𝓫𝓸 (@LydiahKinyanju4) August 4, 2019
The council said that Monica would be married by Okoth’s elder brother and that if he was not interested any of his relative would be betrothed to Monica.
Read:Bukusu Elders Stripped Off Leadership For Supporting Uhuru Kenyatta
The late Kibra MP Ken Okoth was cremated at the Kariokor crematorium.
On Friday, family sources intimated to a local media that they fear mourners in Homa Bay “will grab Okoth’s coffin and forcefully bury him”.
“Should they be allowed to do that, they would have acted in breach of Ken Okoth’s will. Out of fear, we wish to say that Okoth will be cremated right here in Nairobi tomorrow (Saturday, August 3),” the source revealed.
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