A Mombasa-based Nyamira family that buried their 7-year-old son on Friday at the Coast after failing to raise over Sh50,000 to transport the body has returned home to face the elders.
Johnson Osebe of Gesima ward and the family could not raise the figure required and opted to go against the Abagusii tradition that forbids burying someone away from ancestral land.
Master James Osebe had died under mysterious circumstances after his body was discovered last week near Jomvu in Mombasa, badly mutilated.
According to the father, the young boy might have been kidnapped by his assailants, tortured and then killed when he was coming from Christa preparatory school where he was a class two pupil.
“We had to do the undoable - that is burying him at Mombasa cemetery because we could not raise funds to bring him home. That is why we have come here to explain to the family,” the father said.
“He was killed under controversial circumstances and we are yet to know his real killers. The police in Mombasa are investigating the matter.”
Gesima village elder Mzee Johnson Atuti had to sermon his colleagues yesterday to discuss the way forward about the debatable burial.
“Yes it is uncultured to do such a thing. That is why we have come here. We may be compelled to sacrifice to the gods for forgiveness,” he said.