No special orders for Maathai send-off, say crematorium staff
For Kariokor Crematorium attendants Robert Mwania and Joseph Kioko, Saturday will be just another day at work.
But as Kenyans bid farewell to conservationist and Nobel laureate Wangari Maathai, the task of performing the final rites falls on the two.
“We have been alerted that Mheshimiwa’s (Prof Maathai’s) body will be cremated here on Saturday,” said Mr Mwania. (SEE IN PICTURES: Wangari Maathai)
“We have not made special arrangements. If there are any, the family and Lee Funeral Home will do that,” he said, adding that the only preparations would involve cleaning the cremator on Friday.
Mr Mwania has worked at Kariokor Crematorium for nearly 30 years while Mr Kioko is just a year into the job.
Cremating a body, Mr Mwania told the Nation, no longer scares him. “When I started working here, I was warned that I would be visited by evil spirits at night but that has never happened. I eat and sleep normally.”
Mr Kioko supports his colleague’s assertion, saying theirs is just an ordinary job. “I have not experienced anything strange. We are just like any other workers,” he said.
But the two, like the rest of Kenyans, are anxious to know how the body will be brought to the crematorium. Regulations say the body should either be in a coffin or wrapped up well.
“From what I have heard, she did not like trees being felled. I believe they will find a way to carry the body as she did not want a wooden coffin. But we will wait and see as I have not been briefed,” said Mr Mwania.
The 2004 Nobel laureate stated her wish to be cremated, said a joint family and government statement released on Monday. (READ: Maathai to be cremated as per will, family says)
“She also wished to have her remains interred within the democratic space of the Wangari Maathai Institute for Peace & Environmental Studies.
“In adherence to her wishes, the family, in consultation with the government, have made the funeral arrangements,” the statement said.
Since Prof Maathai advocated the preservation of wood, her remains will be cremated in an electric kiln — a small building with a towering chimney and a grey tile wall.
There are two wood fuelled furnaces for the Hindu community and another for people of other religions.
