Standoff as villagers block Ojodeh hearse

Hundreds of mourners were at hand to receive the body of Internal Security assistant minister Orwa Ojodeh in Ndhiwa on Friday.

Mourners in Ndhiwa Town barricaded roads, blocking the convoy from proceeding to Mr Ojodeh’s Ratang’a home. They asked that they be allowed to view the body.

The crowd wailed and chanted dirges as they held twigs aloft. Read (Leaders praise patriot Ojodeh)

The mourners, who had been waiting to receive the body, were shocked when the hearse was taken to Mr Ojodeh’s Unga farm.

Although the body was eventually taken to the Ndhiwa district central square, it was not removed from the hearse for viewing.

Mr Ojodeh’s widow, Mary, appealed for calm as she spoke to the mourners.

The convoy led by a police vehicle finally left for Unga farm. The initial plan was to take it to Ratang’a Village.

Mourners who had already gone to Ratang’a returned to Unga following the change of plan.

At the gate of his Unga farm, angry mourners from the minister’s Kwabai clan insisted that the body should be taken to his Ratang’a home.

At Ratang’a, the coffin was placed outside the gate to Mr Ojodeh’s father’s homestead.

An elder said this was in keeping with the Luo culture that prohibits the body of an adult man being taken to his father’s homestead.

Meanwhile, mourners demanded that the coffin be opened so they could view the body.

Police prevented this and some youths started pelting them with stones. Later in the evening, the hearse was taken back to Unga.

Business came to a halt in trading centres from Ringo, Opapao, Rodi Kopany, Ongeng’ and Ndhiwa as a convoy of more than 200 vehicles made its way.

Learning in most schools was abandoned as pupils and teachers joined the mourners along the route.