‘Disappointed’ Okoth’s mum to bury banana stem after ‘skipping’ 3am cremation

Additional reporting by Lenox Sengre.

Angeline Ajwang Ongere, the mother of the Late Kibra MP Ken Okoth, will on Sunday, August 4, bury a banana stem to symbolise the interment of her son, Okoth’s maternal nephew, Elvis Oluoch, said on Saturday.

Oluoch said all the while, Okoth’s family knew they would bury him, and that the cremation arrangements were only being championed by the Late MP’s widow, Monica.

“We only hear that Ken left a Will directing he be cremated upon death. None of our family members has set eyes on that said-Will. All through, we were making arrangements to have Okoth transported to Kabondo Kasipul and be rested on his mother’s land. We did not know that Monica had other plans,” Oluoch told Citizen Television on Saturday.

The Late Okoth was cremated at the Kariokor Crematorium on Saturday, August 3 at 3am, Monica’s lawyer, Edwin Sifuna, told K24 Digital.

Previous arrangements to have the remains of the MP taken to Homa Bay were on Friday quashed after the lawmaker’s family said they feared mourners in the county “would grab Okoth’s coffin and forcefully bury him”.

“Should they be allowed to do that, they would have acted in breach of Ken Okoth’s Will. Out of fear, we wish to say that Okoth will be cremated right here in Nairobi tomorrow (Saturday, August 3),” a source close to Okoth’s family told K24 Digital on Friday.

“Ken Okoth’s mother will travel to Kabondo later today (Saturday, August 3). Tomorrow (Sunday, August 4), she is expected to dig a grave and bury a banana stem. That would symbolise that she buried someone she loved dearly,” said Oluoch.

Ken Okoth’s mother, Angeline Ajwang, told K24 Digital on Saturday that she skipped Okoth’s cremation because she “could not attend due to tradition demands”.

Asked on why they won’t perform the same "banana stem-in-grave" rites at Kochia in Rangwe Constituency, Homa Bay County -- the land of Ken Okoth’s father -- , Okoth’s nephew, Oluoch, said: “[Why should we?] They have never been there for us. We only heard about them on media.”

Ken Okoth succumbed to a 2-year battle with colorectal cancer on July 26.