Luos have strict laws regarding funerals and burials, with each family member having their own special place where they are to be buried when the time comes.
For instance, a woman is to be buried on the right-hand side of his husband’s house, whether the man is still in his father’s homestead (dala) or if he has established his own and moved out.
However, long ago this had to be ignored in Kano Plains, where the harsh natural conditions forced people to bury their loved ones inside houses.
Long before the roads came, even before the British established the rice and sugarcane schemes, most of Kano was heavily forests resulting to heavy wildlife presence.
As a result, hungry hyenas would creep out of their habitat at night to evacuate the dead bodies for food, forcing the people to seek an alternative, which in this case was to bury them inside the house.
This was before the introduction of cement in the region, meaning that the graves could neither be cemented nor covered by slabs to keep the animals away, narrates my grandfather Onguko K'Owino
However, with time, the forest cover reduced and was replaced by the rice and sugarcane schemes, resulting in the expulsion of the wild animals and finally people could again be buried outside.
Ironically, the region which lies between the Western-end of Kericho and Kisumu town and bordered by Nandi to the North no longer has forests!
#Historynow #Bizarre