CULTURE AND SAFETY OF HANDLING CORONA VIRUS DEATHS

Kenya is made up of more than 42 tribes which have their different type of cultural practices. Some cultural events are practiced ones a month in a year and now with the corona virus situations, most of them have postponed their practices and one of them being the Abasuba transformation of boy to men practice, i mean traditional circumcision being postponed to December because of the fear of the spread of corona virus and the safety measures from the government also restricting them from their annual traditional practices.

When someone from my tribe die, the family is given one, two or even three weeks to mourn their loved one before they bury. That give time for the relatives also to travel to the rural place for the burial and giving their last respect for the late person and celebrating the life he or she lived.

Corona virus as changed this culture but its all for the best and to reduce infections here in Kenya. When a patient dies from the corona virus, the funeral is attended by only close family members and the burial should be done within 48 hours, with all the lock downs in some counties in Nairobi and other badly affected counties, movements are restricted and that means only few and close guys can attend and this is very understandable because the ministry of health is trying to reduce the infections that may occur due to those events taking place as it was before.

But something happened this week when one corona patient died in the county i was born, he was buried in a plastic  bag,very early in the morning[2 am], no coffin and not with close family members but with the county officials in a shallow grave that might stink when the body start decomposing. No time to mourn the loved one and this was very much against the ministry of health and the luo culture too, the ancestors will not be happy.

Several organizations in Kenya are threatening to go to court because this was inhuman and against the culture. It is very traumatizing for the family and the village at large because the spirit of the dead was not handle with respect and the only option available might be to dig the body out from the grave and bury it the second time, which is strange but that’s the only option available as per the luo culture. At this moment all Corona virus prevention measures will be taken but the body will be buried for the second time.

We have recorded 9 corona deaths, the last 8 deaths were handled properly but the last one from Siaya County was the one handled without respect of the dead and might lead to some county government officials who ordered such actions be punished by the law because it was very unprofessional. With the low numbers of Corona virus infection currently in Kenya, we should be able to handle the few deaths recorded with care and respect, this let most Kenyan wondering what will happen when the number of death increase rapidly, will we find bodies laying on top of graves and stinking county?

The government and the ministry of health her in Kenya are having sleepless nights to try to handle the deadly corona virus pandemic with care but some individual work on their own capacity to make their own decisions and treat those who die on the virus without respect as if they don’t have families who can mourn and later bury them with respect.

GOD BLESS KENYA