Reports have emerged alleging the late Kenneth Matiba will be cremated and not buried, seemingly in keeping in line with his wishes to his family back in 1994.
In an article by a local daily dated February 8, 1994, Matiba is quoted stating he had instructed his family to cremate him and not bury him because he does not want “dancing parties and Harambees” when he dies.
“After all, the Kikuyu traditionally never buried their dead. They used to take the bodies into the forest to be devoured by hyenas. Was that not wisdom,” Matiba questioned.
The multiparty democracy champion also never wished to be accorded a state funeral upon his death arguing that only Kenya’s founding father Mzee Jomo Kenyatta deserved a state funeral.
[caption caption="Kenneth Matiba"]
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Matiba stated: “All other people, including me, should be buried by their families when they die.”
The father of the second liberation reasoned that if all leaders were accorded state funerals, there would be no space left for development.
His sentiments were ignited by the state funeral that Jaramogi Oginga Odinga was accorded on February 5, 1994, at his home in Kang'o Ka Jaramogi, Bondo.
According to the article, Matiba believed that Kenyans had adopted a bad habit of making a big issue out of death.
In the article, Matiba further questioned the rationale behind fundraising when someone dies while no one helped the person while he was alive.
[caption caption="Kenneth Matiba"]
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Meanwhile, the head of Public Service James Kinyua was appointed by the government to chair the funeral committee for the late Matiba 85, who died at the Karen Hospital last Sunday from cardiac arrest.
