Kenyans ought to embrace cremation to avoid land costs

By Daniel G Njoroge

Kenya: There is a land acquisition frenzy in most counties at the moment. This land acquisition mania is not for investors to put up factories, tertiary institutions or even sports academies.

It is meant for the dead. This is because most cemeteries if not all, are already filled up. Yes, our counties are in a frenzy to purchase land solely for cemeteries.

This brings to mind whether disposing of human remains need to be such a costly affair. Recently, Kiambu governor, William Kabogo announced that his government had set aside Sh100 million to purchase land for a cemetery. When one considers that such a colossal sum could be used for other projects and compares it to what it will actually be used for, you shudder at the thought.

Well, I am actually not blaming Kabogo or other governors facing such predicaments for having misplaced priorities. Far from it. They were elected to serve the people, who indeed need decent burial. So who is to blame?

It is we Kenyans. We have opted not to let go of a static traditional mind-set that has refused to accept the realities of the present and change with the times. We are all in agreement that the land issue is quite a sensitive subject. Equally sensitive is the way we deal with our loved ones when they die. Yet these twin issues need not to bother us unnecessarily if we are honest, realistic and bold enough to face them head-on.

Land in Kenya is getting scarce by the day. Our population keeps on increasing while the land mass remains the same. Needless to state, as the order of nature dictates, the more the population, the more the number of the dead.

 The question we all should confront is: Should we be seeking more land for cemeteries or for other better and effective alternatives? I strongly feel it is high time we embraced cremation as the most sustainable, healthier, pocket-friendly and environmentally friendly way of disposing of the dead. Most worrying is that an estimated 700,000 trees are felled down annually by coffin makers.

This is not only environmentally dangerous, but also a major threat to our forest cover and our own existence. The forest cover ensures that our rivers never dry up and puts on hold the process of desertification.

Our failure to embrace cremation is a major failure to secure our own future and posterity. It is a situation where mankind becomes his own enemy and needs to be protected from himself and his own actions.

The word cremation comes from the Latin word cremo meaning to burn. Cremation is the use of high temperature burning, vaporisation and oxidation to reduce the dead animal or human body to basic chemical compounds.

However, cremation should not be misconstrued to mean an alternative to a funeral but rather an alternative to burial or another form of disposal.