Are we increasingly becoming a society that disrespects the dead? If recent events surround the dead is anything to go by, then we are headed towards a wrong and dangerous path.
A strange incident happened in Voi which made my blood chill. Mourners dumped a body of their beloved kin inside a supermarket and thereafter engaged the police in running battles.
The story goes that the late was a worker in the supermarket for three years and was allegedly killed by the owner of the supermarket who accused him of stealing his goats. That in a bid to make the late to confess stealing the goats, the owner of the supermarket forced the late to drink some concoction. It is this concoction that the mourners suspected to had killed the man.
What made my blood chill is not the running battles. We are used to seeing the police engage enraged 'wananchi' in running battles. What made me shudder is the way the casket containing the body was tossed left, right and centre.
The police trying to remove it from the supermarket while the mourners insisting it remains inside. The tossing of the casket, as if it was empty without the deceased inside showed disrespect of the highest order to the dead.
A dead body should be handled gently and with a lot of respect. In the African tradition, death was revered.
Our forefathers gave the dead a befitting burial. Most of the burial ceremonies were almost sacred undertakings, with humble prayers. Our grandfathers and grandmothers organized elaborate burial ceremonies. Some of these ceremonies, depending on the culture of that particular community, would take even more than three weeks.
When the body was brought from the mortuary, it was handled with care. Viewing the body was done in an orderly manner so as not to disturb the dead. This tossing of the body left, right Centre was unheard of. It would amount to an abomination.The dead should be accorded the respect they deserve. We do not expect them to rest in peace if we do not treat them with dignity.
We do not expect them to rest in peace by turning their burial ceremonies into running battles with the police. We do not expect them to rest in peace if we use their bodies to cause conflicts or bargain for unnecessary demands. The Voi mourners should have accorded the body a decent burial first and thereafter seek justice through the legal channels.
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