A few years ago when Vincent Otieno arrived in Mombasa from his rural home in Ugunja, Siaya County, he did not envision ferrying empty coffins and taking measurements of the dead to make a living.

But today, this is the job that puts food on his table.

When he first landed in the Coastal city, Otieno was employed to work as a cook at a beach hotel, but this only lasted for four months.

“I was laid off after a few months and remained jobless for a long time until I met a man who hailed from my county and who owned a workshop. I told him about my plight and he invited me to work in his workshop,” Otieno says.

That was how his journey into carpentry began and today the married father-of-one has specialised in making coffins, a job he says he loves for it provides him with a steady stream of income.

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To further augment his income, Otieno has, for the past eight months, taken to walking into Coast General Hospital Mortuary to take measurements of the dead for proper building of his coffins.

“So many people fear going into the mortuary but I have no problem going there.

“When a client asks me to, I will go into the morgue and take measurements of the deceased which I then use to construct a coffin,” he says.

For this extra service, Otieno is paid Sh300 with some paying as much as Sh500 for him to take the less than 50-metre walk into the mortuary, which is a stone’s throw walk from the workshop.

Some families also pay an extra Sh100 for Otieno to ferry the coffin into the mortuary.

Vincent Otieno, 29, at his coffin workshop outside the Coast General Hospital. His ingenuity and willingness to go an extra mile for his clients has seen him grow his earnings. (PHOTO: GIDEON MAUNDU/STANDARD)

He is also at hand to attend to repair damages that may arise when the body is put into the coffin. And for this service, he charges between Sh50 to Sh100.

Otieno says business booms in December, awkwardly pointing out that many people pass on at that time of the year.

But his work is not without challenges especially in the form of taunts mainly from passersby.

“They will often ask me ‘Biashara inaendeleaje leo?’ (How is business today?), to which I reply: Come, there is an offer for every coffin you buy. That often shuts them up,” he says with a smile.