Funeral called off after Migori 'dead man' is spotted drinking in bar

Mourners look at the grave that had been dug ready for Oluoch’s burial (Photo: Courtesy)

Migori, Kenya: The grave for Wilson Oluoch had been dug in his home village near Awendo in Migori county, western Kenya three weeks after he went missing.

A funeral was dramatically called off after the supposedly dead man was spotted drinking at a nearby bar as mourners arrived.

The grave for Wilson Oluoch had been dug in his home village near Awendo in Migori county, western Kenya.

Oluoch had gone missing three weeks previously and when a decomposed male body was found in a sugar cane plantation, his family thought it was his.

But shortly before the funeral someone told the family that a man who looked like Wilson had been seen in a bar in nearby Rongo.

His relatives visited the bar and found motorcycle taxi rider Wilson still there, not dead but dead drunk as he tried to drown his sorrows.

He explained that he had felt so ashamed after returning home drunk recently that he had planned to slip away and make a new life elsewhere.

His family and the rest of the village rejoiced that he had been found alive and turned plans for a wake into a celebration party.

However, elders of Oluoch’s Luo culture said that cleansing rituals would have to be carried out before he could be allowed back into the village.

The body of the man thought to have been Oluoch has been returned to the local morgue and still awaits identification.