When teacher's effort to demystify death was met with suspicion

A Kirinyaga teacher wanted to venture into a business he considers lucrative, so he bought a sample of his product and took it home. The sample was a casket, bright white and shiny, just like some folks like them.

Peter Munene Gitari said he was targeting high-end clients and was quite impressed by the quality that local carpenters could produce. He considered a Sh25,000 investment to be quite a steal, so he bought the casket in readiness for his new business while awaiting the business premises to be finalised.

But the casket, although empty and light, its bright white paint only recently dried, caused quite some tamasha. Neighbours craned their necks to see how he planned to use the casket. Some whispered that Gitari had been twangaring his wife in the past and probably wanted to cause her more grief through his morbid humour.

That's when police were called in. Gitari's plea that he meant no one ill will has not saved him from the clutches of the law. He has been placed under probation for six months and surcharged a bond of Sh100,000, which requires him to report to Kirinyaga police every Friday.

The expectation is that he will learn to respect the dead by not squeezing caskets into the spaces where the living inhabit. Or it could be that the living should respect the dead by keeping them in their place, which should be somewhere under six feet.

Gitari's efforts to demystify death have only been met with superstition and suspicion; what a wasted effort this has been!