Kisumu ‘mjengo’ men stumble upon coffin, fearing wrath of ‘disturbing the dead’

There was a spectacle to behold at a construction site in Nyamasaria Estate, Kisumu County after workers accidentally stumbled upon a grave, frightening them into running helter-skelter as they screamed at the top of their lungs.

The coffin believed to contain remains of a person buried decades ago was found a couple of feet deep in the ground by the men who were constructing a septic tank.

It was an everyone-for-himself and-God-for-us-all scenario as the tradesmen, out of shock, scampered for safety. One of them said he took off for fear of being cursed or bringing his community bad omen for having ‘disturbed the dead’.

“One thing that immediately came on my mind was that the dead would have woken up and pounced on us, demanding to know why we were disturbing their peace,” chuckled one of the builders.

According to the Luo tradition, it’s taboo to ‘disturb the dead’, especially one who had long been buried. The workers panicked and were worried because they didn’t know how to break the news to the man who had commissioned the job.

“Being that this area has sandy soil, the remains could not decompose fast as sand acts as a preservative,” one of the workers was overheard explaining to his colleagues.

According to one of the workers at the site, the group of ten men had been working at the new site for the second day. Apparently, the original owners of the quarter-acre parcel of land had sold it to the current developer who had began constructing residential houses.

The workers had been hired to build a house on the piece of land, but had began with constructing a septic tank. At about mid-morning, the workers were a few feet into the ground when they discovered a box of sorts. The curious workers dug deeper, wondering how such a box would have found its way deep into the ground.

Upon striking it hard, it occurred to them that they had actually smashed into a coffin, sending bones flying all over the place.

“It is a coffin! Oh My God,” shouted one of the two workers who were deep in the pit, as others who were outside scampered screaming.

“Mano kuong’. Ok adong’ chien (This is a curse. I can’t be the last to leave here),” shouted one of them, running away for fear of being cursed for exhuming a buried body.

They then decided to call the developer to inform him of the strange occurrence. Surprisingly, the owner of the land could hear none of it, he ordered them to hurriedly rebury the remains in a different location and carry on with work.

Residents who responded to the commotion were perplexed and watched in dismay as the workers transferred the coffin to a ‘safer place’ before proceeding with construction of the septic tank.

The scared workers ordered for alcohol, which they took to regain courage before proceeding with work. “We have to earn a living hence we cannot run away from the job. We had proposed to transfer the remains to the nearest cemetery but the ‘boss’ thought it would be costly and advised that we just bury it here,” one of the workers told this writer.

The incident has become talk of the estate with residents expressing fear that they could be living on graves.

Photo: Courtesy