A new culture has emerged in Nakuru County where politicians and prominent persons are buried at odd hours.
This has been witnessed among a number of politicians in the region, in what is appearing to be a technique to avoid people who might want to disrupt the burial ceremonies.
To avoid embarrassments, especially from unknown women claiming to have been in married to the deceased, night burials are slowly becoming popular in the county.
This was witnessed during the burial of 2013 and 2017 Bahati MP hopeful Gikwa Mwenda who was buried secretly at 3am on October 17, as area MCA John Njuguna has revealed.
Njuguna said that he too, despite being the area ward representative, was left in the dark, and met a fresh grave when he was allowed to access the compound the next day.
“Being a leader, I was allowed access to the home on October 18 where I found a fresh grave with flowers. A relative intimated to Gikwa’s grave and he had been buried on the morning of October 17,” he told the Saturday Standard.
The same was done in Elburgon during the burial of Nakuru businessman and politician George Kori who succumbed to diabetes earlier in the year.
On July 16, last year, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Executive Secretary Kuria Njau was buried at dawn, leaving Knut boss Wilson Sossion and his team in shock.
Sossion and group arrived at 11am and left 30 minutes later after finding out that the burial ceremony had already been held.
Nakuru County Commissioner Erastus Mbui confirmed the incidents but noted that there is a specific time frame within which funeral services and burials should be conducted.
“Burial permits clearly indicate the date and location where a deceased person is to be buried. Burial rites should be conducted between 6am and 6pm,” he said.
He noted that the night burials might be hard for people opposed to the ceremonies to reverse them once done, as they have to acquire an exhumation order from a court.