Ken Okoth's paternal family says it is ready to bury the Kibra MP

Members of the late Kibra MP Ken Okoth's paternal family at Amoso Village in Kochia Ward in Rangwe Constituency. They are showing a gravesite where they will bury Okoth if they are given his body. [James Omoro/Standard]

The paternal family of the late Kibra Member of Parliament (MP) Ken Okoth family have said they are ready to bury the legislator next to the remains of his late father.

 The MP's father, the late Nicholas Anayo Obonyo, lived in Rangwe Constituency, Homa Bay County before separating from his mother Anjeline Ajwang’. 

Before he died, Okoth's father lived in Amoso village, Kochia Ward.

On Tuesday, the MP's paternal family spokesman Raymond Mbai said they were ready to bury him.

Mbai who is the late Obonyo’s nephew, however, said they are not forcing anybody to bury the late MP in Amoso village. Okoth succumbed to colorectal cancer on Friday. 

“Let it come out clearly that we are not piling pressure to be given Okoth’s body to bury. But if there is nowhere he can be buried. Let the body be given to us to so that we bury him next to the grave of his father,” said Mbai.

He said Okoth’s paternal family had been kept in the dark over burial arrangements despite the fact that the deceased was a member of their family. 

Mbai said Okoth’s mother Ajwang’ separated from the late Obonyo in the late 1980s when both were still young.

However, Mbai says according to the Luo culture, a child belongs to the father - especially if the father fulfilled the cultural requirement of validating a marriage with the mother of his children. That cultural requirement is paying bride price to the wife’s parents.

According to Mbai, the late Obonyo had paid bride price to Ajwang's parents. This Mbai argues gives him the right to the children he had sired with her.

“I clarify that the late Okoth’s father paid the dowry of two cows and he did not take them back after their separation. This means the children they had together belong to him,” Mbai added.

Okoth was the youngest of his four siblings.

Even though the late MP had not been visiting his paternal family,  Mbai said he (Okoth) had already been made aware of his father's whereabouts when he was alive. “My cousin Okoth left our family when he was still very young but our uncles had made him aware of his father’s whereabouts during his lifetime,” Mbai added.

Okoth's father, Obonyo died in 1993.