No one chooses when, where and how to die.
However, a few get the chance to write wills on where to be buried or cremated.
The bitter truth is that majority do not get the chance to dictate to their families how they will be laid to rest after passing away.
In the Coast region, particularly in the Mijikenda set up, there is a tradition that has stirred debate as it dictates how and where the deceased will be laid to rest depending on the cause of death.
The Mijikendas believe that when their culture is not observed, then dire consequences will follow. This is the reason why those who drown in the Indian Ocean are buried by the sea shores.
Similarly, bodies of those who die through road accidents and suicide have to be isolated.
They have to be buried not less than 50 metres away from where the graveyards of those who die naturally are located.
This tradition has existed despite being challenged by the elite who feel that such actions are uncalled for as accidents and suicides take place daily, be they in the urban or rural areas.
Bodies of people who drown are taken to their homes but also buried far away from homesteads just like the accident and suicide cases.
The chairman of Kilifi Fishermen Association (KFA) Mr Dickson Kahindi said those who drown in the ocean including children from within the county are laid to rest by the seashore.
“We do this to avert fear amongst families of other fishermen who carry their business in the ocean. We do our work just like those in the offices. People who tap palms fall off coconut trees but they do not do away with their work. The same applies to us fishermen,” said Kahindi.
The same sentiments were expressed by members of the Muslim community who said that once a person drowns and their body is not recovered within a day, they should be immediately buried where the body was found.
Captain Juma Shalo, who is in charge of the Coast survival rescue team in Kilifi, said it is proper for those who lose their lives through drowning to be buried where their bosies were found.
“Our Muslim culture demands immediate burial of decomposed bodies retrieved from the ocean or anywhere else. I concur with fishermen who lay bodies to rest where they recover them,” he said.
According to the head of Kaya Godoma in Ganze Sub-County who is also in charge of a rescue home for the elderly persons Mr Mangi Mitsanze, haunting could befall a family which defies the tradition.
“We have seen families getting into trouble after burying accident victims in their homesteads. They either get mad, fight one another or disappear one by one from their home,” he said.
Kayafungo elder, Mr Mwarandu Hare, who is also an advocate in Malindi Sub-County, admitted that some retrogressive cultures amongst the Mijikenda communities are not being practised but not the one demanding an accident victim to be isolated away from the homestead.
“All in all, it does not make any difference for a body to be buried either at the centre of a home or outside,” said Hare.