Pay us more to exhume bodies and pave way for SGR line, Kwale villagers plead

Villagers at Kafuduni-B in Kinango, Kwale County, at a dug up grave. The remains from this grave were dug up and reburied elsewhere. [PHOTO: MAARUFU MOHAMED/STANDARD]

KWALE: One Kenya Railways engineer is at the centre of an unusual exercise outside the complex statistical and impassive computations he accustomed to.  Engineer Maxwell Mengich says the Kenya Railways has been assigned to supervise the exhumation of graves  in Kafuduni “B” location of Kwale County and elsewhere to make way for the Standard Gauge Railway which will snake its way through thousands of villages across the country. Kenya Railway will be compensating these villagers on behalf of the government without interfering with the rituals of how the exhumations will be carried out, Mengich says.

“These are cultural issues in which we cannot get involved in,” Mengich observed, but he assured the affected families that they would be paid for each grave that was dug up.

At a village in Kinango sub-county about 27km from Mombasa, a handful of men armed with hoes hurriedly dig up graves. Songs fill the air as elderly men perform ancient customs which they say will appease the spirits that will be disturbed by the movement of the dead. Digging up graves is considered a most abominable sacrilege in this village.

Therefore, Diyo Ngoka, the oldest man in the village, leads in the cleansing ceremony.   Diyo stands before each grave that has been dug up and utters the words: “We are displacing you as a result of a government project, we cannot ignore this directive, but we are taking you to a better place. This goat we are slaughtering is to appease you.”

Some of the remains are as old as a century, and that is why local people want to be paid more money for each exhumation. The   villagers feel that the Sh50,000 paid for each body exhumed is inadequate for the grim task of opening up sepulchers in villages where traditional customs and taboos still hold sway.

 “This amount is too little. Our customs stipulate that special cleansing ceremonies must be performed in such instances and a cow slaughtered for each grave that has been dug up. But with the amount paid by the government, we are forced to slaughter goats,” says Mwamwero Katana Ngoka, a spokesman for a family whose 22 dead relatives are being removed from their final resting place.

Mwamwero considers   Sh150,000 a fair price. “We are required to slaughter cows and sprinkle blood on the graves after the bodies are recovered and thereafter hold a feast where traditional liquor, beer and sodas are consumed as we conduct special prayers,” he said.

Mwamwero’s relative Kadide Chaka agrees and says the cost of hired labour is up. “The men involved in digging up the graves have to be paid. We are disturbing the dead and ought to give them decent reburials,” Chaka observes.

The family has already been paid for the seven graves that were exhumed.   “We have been assured that payment for the remaining 15 will be made by Wednesday,” Mwamwero said.

In spite of taboos associated with ghoulish task among the Duruma, some youths have travelled     as far as Taita Taveta County  glad to offer their services.

Jimmy Mwazo, a grave digger from Mwatate in Taita Taveta County, said a friend whose relatives are among those being reburied asked him to help out.

 “The dry weather spell has made it extremely hard to get to the remains mostly buried under rock. Most of the dead here were buried in the traditional way without coffins and were only covered in blankets or mats,” he said.

In the first   24 hours of the operationsm eight graves had been dug up and their remains reburied elsewhere. Six days later,    12 bodies had been recovered in Kafuduni ‘B’ location. And by Saturday the remains of 44 people   on the path of the Standard Guage Railway had been moved to new graves.

The headman of the village, Katana Chondo Katana said 44 graves would be exhumed in the village. Samson Chale Joho, the chief of Mwatate location in Kinango, said families in his area were also exhuming their dead. “I am aware of the project but I do not have the full list of the number of graves to be exhumed,” said Joho.

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SGR Kenya Railways