While most people omit burial details in their written or oral wills, residents of Kapkomool in Keiyo South this week witnessed a burial of its kind.
Joseph Chebasa Kipchoge, an environmentalist who died aged 89, had laid down his unique demands for his final send-off which left his family and neighbours in shock.
Paul Kipruto, Kipchoge's last-born son in a family of 13, said his father had earlier informed him of his wishes concerning his funeral.
Kipchoge, who died on October 24 at his home, was an environmental enthusiast. One of his last wishes was that he should be buried in a rare coffin made of bamboo otherwise known as 'Tirwet' in the Keiyo dialect. He did not want to be buried in a normal coffin.
The Tirwet coffin was used in the early days before the advent of modern coffins. Kipruto, while inspecting the coffin at Iten, said his late father insisted that the casket should not be covered because he wanted the fresh soil to cover his body.
He added that his father wanted his body to be covered with white linen and the pillow on his head should be hide from the cow that would be slaughtered during his burial.
"The wishes of my father came as a shock to me. But when he died, I chose to fulfil his wishes," he said.
He added that even the church had to give in to his father's wishes. "My father loved trees, and he did not want any of his trees cut down without a reason. He planted over 1,000 trees and that's why he chose a bamboo coffin," he said.
He explained that Kipchoge instructed him to plant a banana where his head would rest to provide him with shade and an avocado tree where his legs would rest.
Kipruto said his father had said his grandchildren and great-grandchildren would eat the fruits from the avocado, which would give him joy as he watched over them.
"Our father loved his grandchildren and everyone around him. That is why he wished to see them eating fruits planted by his graveyard."
Duncan Barmao, a neighbour, said he was shocked to hear the news of a bamboo coffin.
He said many people came for the burial just to witness the strange happenings not witnessed in the village before. "I had never seen such a coffin before. Planting of fruit trees at the grave, instead of flowers is also strange," he said.
An elder, Zachariah Kokoi said that when an elderly man outlines his wishes for his burial, it should be followed to the letter otherwise calamities would befall the entire family.
He said spirits from the dead could not rest until the wishes were met, failure to which the body would be removed from the grave and elders from the community would be called to perform rituals.
This would include slaughtering a sheep, sprinkling blood on the grave followed by the wishes the deceased wanted to be done.
"It is not easy when people ignore the wishes, especially from the elders. His spirits would disturb family members. Deaths may also be witnessed. This would start from the immediate family members and mostly men in the family," he said.
Kipchoge was laid to rest last Saturday at his farm, Kapkimool, Kitany village in Elgeyo Marakwet county.
