Family Buries A Banana Stem In Place Of Their Late Dad

A family in Juja Kiambu County was forced to bury a banana stem after they were denied to the right bury their 90-year-old father. Trouble started when family and friends went to the Kenyatta University Mortuary to collect the body of Mzee Chege Kamau but were instead slapped with a court injunction restraining them from burying him on the identified burial site at his Magomano farm, Theta Ward.

With the body detained and already a grave dug, elders immediately convened an impromptu meeting which resolved that the burial ceremony had to go ahead, but this time they would bury a banana stem in the place of the deceased.

“According to the Kikuyu culture, once a grave is dug, it cannot be filled without burying the deceased otherwise his ghosts will start haunting his family for not burying him on the date that had been set for the ceremony especially now that the grave has already been dug. This may cause deaths in the family and therefore we must plant this banana stem to wade off these ghosts,” explained Mzee Kariuki Wa Migwi, a Kikuyu elder.

He added that planting the banana stem with its buds symbolised life and that just as it will grow and bear fruit, the bereaved family will live and multiply. However, Migwi warned that those who defied the wishes and the will of the deceased will have themselves to blame as the wrath of his spirits may descend on them.

The ceremony was administered by only those installed as elders and had undergone all the Kikuyu traditional rituals pertaining to the same.

“No one can carry or bury this stem if they have not completed all the rituals to be installed as an elder according to the Agikuyu traditions. Deviating from these norms may result to untold calamities to those concerned,” Mzee Migwi warned.