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.
— Brian Kirui (@probriankirui) 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
— Mark Philo (@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 N. Kinyanjui ???????????????? (@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.
The late Kibra MP Ken Okoth was cremated at the Kariokor crematorium.
