The drama that ensued at Lee before Ken Okoth’s body was taken at 3am

By Lenox Sengre.

The Late Kibra MP Ken Okoth’s body was taken from Lee Funeral Home at 3am Saturday, several hours after a back-and-forth between the deceased’s family and the management of the morgue.

K24 Digital understands that one of the morgue attendants, who had a key to the chamber where Ken Okoth’s body was kept, had escorted another body to the JKIA, when Ken Okoth’s wife, Monica, and her team arrived at around 10pm Friday demanding Okoth’s body be handed over to them.

The attendant, who spoke to K24 Digital on condition that his name shouldn’t be published, said there was a stand-off between Lee Funeral Home’s management and Mrs Okoth, with Monica’s team allegedly saying they had heard rumours that there were plans by Kibra constituents to barricade roads leading to Kariokor Crematorium during the transportation of Okoth’s remains.

The attendant said Monica and team believed the Kibra mourners had planned to “forcefully take Ken’s coffin” in a bid to stop his cremation from happening.

“Monica’s team wanted Ken’s body taken that night so that they could proceed to Kariokor without the knowledge of the alleged dissatisfied constituents. According to them, they wanted by the time the Kibra people were barricading routes leading to Kariokor, the process would have long been over,” said the informant.

“Lee management, on the other hand, insisted it was against its policies to release a body deep in the night. As a result, a stand-off ensued. Monica’s team was told that the body could only be released on Saturday.

“That impasse lasted for hours, with the team first being told that they could take the body at 1am, then later at 2am. Ken’s body was eventually handed over to Monica and team at around 3am,” said the source.

Okoth’s body was not immediately transported to Kariokor. It remains unknown where it was taken between 3am and 7am, when Okoth's body arrived at the crematorium.

The cremation process, it is said, lasted nearly two hours.

This comes even as Ken Okoth’s nephew, Elvis Oluoch, says the Late MP’s mother, Angeline Ajwang Ongere, and other relatives were kept in the dark throughout the body-collection and cremation process.

Oluoch says Ajwang and Okoth’s other family members were against his cremation.

According to Oluoch, it is only Monica who was pushing for the Late legislator’s cremation.

Okoth’s body was completely calcined by 9am Saturday, K24 Digital understands.

We can authoritatively report that the cremation was witnessed by Okoth's widow Monica, family lawyer, Edwin Sifuna and Okoth's two brothers.

Ken Okoth’s ashes were put in an urn and taken to Lee at around 12 noon.

Okoth’s mother, according to Oluoch, will now be forced to bury a banana stem in her native land in Kabondo Kasipul on Sunday, August 4, to symbolise the interment of her son.

Meanwhile, the funeral service of the Late Okoth that was scheduled to take place at Got Rateng’ Secondary School in Homa Bay County on Saturday, went on with little attendance and activity.

Ken Okoth succumbed to colorectal cancer on July 26 in Nairobi after a spirited 2-year battle.