- IN BRIEF: The wrongful burial of a man in Kisii County has been rectified after the exhumation of his body and traditional rituals were performed to allow the mistaken family member to return home. The incident highlights the importance of traditional rituals in the Abagusii community and emphasizes the need for proper identification of deceased persons and for families to be notified in a timely and respectful manner.
The wrongful burial of a man in Nyamache area of Kisii County, Kenya, has been rectified after the exhumation of his body and traditional rituals were performed to allow a family member who was mistaken for the deceased to return home. The incident began when Meshack Ondabu was arrested in Nairobi’s South B area for breaking traffic rules and was sent to Industrial Area Prison. His family, unable to locate him for 40 days, assumed he had died and buried another man, whom they had mistaken for him.
Upon Ondabu’s release, his family was informed of their mistake but was barred from allowing him to return home until the traditional Abagusii rituals had been performed. The community’s tradition required that the body must be removed, and the grave sealed before Ondabu could step into his homestead. The area Chief and police officers supervised the exhumation of the unknown body that had been in the grave for the last two months, and traditional rituals were performed by Abagusii elders to cleanse the homestead before the return of their son.
According to the elders, a sheep was slaughtered to enable Ondabu to return home, and the sheep’s intestines were buried in the empty grave before the police took the body using a body bag, and the coffin was burnt. This act was done to ensure that the spirit of the unknown man who was buried was not disturbed. According to the family members, Ondabu is now ready to return home, and a celebration will be held to welcome him. The family will have to start life afresh as all the household items were burnt according to the community’s traditions.
This event highlights the importance of traditional rituals in the Abagusii community in Kenya. The community believes that performing the traditional rituals cleanses the homestead and prepares it for the return of the son who had been presumed dead. The family members were grateful to the police officers and the community members who helped in the exhumation and the performance of the traditional rituals. The incident also emphasizes the need for proper identification of deceased persons and for families to be notified in a timely and respectful manner.
