Kenyan families spare no effort and money on final send-off for their loved ones

Family status, plastic surgery on bodies and repatriation coats are some of the aspects that make relatives spend millions on the final send-off for their loved ones.

Despite funerals being usually a time to mourn, some families are said to embrace that moment to celebrate the life of the deceased by spending a fortune. It is always a time to make a social statement.

A big chunk of this is on coffins with expensive finishes and accessories.

There are incidents like accidents that leave the body badly damaged and thousands of shillings have to be spent for reconstructive surgery.

Speaking to The Standard, a renowned mortician and cosmetologist in the city reveals that some well-to-do families have no problem spending over Sh500,000 on a coffin.

“They give specifications to the funeral homes on the type of wood used, finishing details and accessories,” says Chebi Subisiso from Chiromo Mortuary.

Accessories like gold and diamond will require one to have deep pockets and “that is why some families will opt to import.”

Patrick Ndangili from Exodus Funeral Services located on Mbagathi Way says any casket made from mahogany is expensive.

“That will cost one more than Sh100,000. But we have other packages of cheap (Sh10,000) medium (Sh25,000) and expensive that is designed and at times imported,” says Ndagili who has been in the business for over a decade.

Some of the coffins are imported from South Africa and China.

But caskets are not the only heavy expenditures families undergo as Subisiso puts it. When a body is repatriated back to ancestral land, the total expenditure can even shoot to Sh2 million.

Before a body is airlifted, it has to undergo special embalming, which comes at a cost, and packaged in a special way.

“But documentation and the type of car used is what incurs families a lot as bodies cannot just be transported like any other luggage, especially if it is a well-to-do family,” explains Subisiso.

“Transporting a body to Busia will cost about Sh40,000 but once you cross the border, it will be Sh70,000,” he says, noting that sometimes families are forced to choose between luxury and necessity when it comes to transport.

One such family is that of Silas Karitho, a former senior chief of Ithima Location in Igembe Central Constituency, Meru County, who died on May 11 and his body was transported by helicopter even after the family paid Sh40,000 to hire a hearse belonging to the Kenyatta University Funeral Home.

LUCRATIVE BUSINESS

“The family had paid the full amount but called late on May 19 that they had changed their mind to have the body airlifted,” said Prof Douglas Ndiritu from the morgue’s funeral services.

As Subisiso puts it, if a family hires a two-seater hearse Benz from Nairobi to Western Kenya, it may cost about Sh250,000.

“An 11-seater Toyota Nissan will cost about Sh40,000,” says Subisiso.

In the recent times, the perception of death has changed with people choosing to celebrate the lives of their departed ones. This has presented a lucrative business opportunity to thousands of Kenyans who own funeral homes and those that make and supply caskets.

The desire to give the dead a befitting send-off has resulted in players in the industry supplying executive coffins for the high-end markets that can be made to the specifications of the customers, like Shellon Bayley.

Ms Bayley, the founder of Royal Send Off Collection, a firm that is based on Mombasa Road, makes a tidy sum by making custom-made coffins.

“I do designs on the coffins myself. I started a relatively new concept in the country where I decorate them with crystal stones. My clients will have to make a choice of the different materials which include sapphire, emerald and diamond crystals,” she told The Standard.

“As Christians, we believe once a person dies, they go to heaven. Heaven is a good place. I started the business because I believe heaven is a glamorous place and one should transition should be equally fashionable. They shouldn’t be buried in drab caskets,” added Bayley.

Charges for the executive coffins she sells vary, depending on design, with the minimum price being Sh120,000 and the most expensive one going for Sh240,000. They come in different colours, lining and embroidery.

In Nairobi, like any other parts of the country, entrepreneurial Kenyans have set up businesses surrounding, especially in areas near major hospitals and mortuaries.

Patrick Ndangili, the director of Exodus Funeral Services is an example. His business provides coffins and hearse transport services to the different parts of Kenya and even to other parts of the continent.

“Due to high demands, we have diversified our services to assisting the bereaved in booking flights for the deceased and the family and doing clearances and transfer to airport. We are one stop we are a one-stop solution for everything,” said Ndangili, who has been running the firm for the last on decade.