Details are emerging that the late second liberation fighter Kenneth Njindo Matiba’s family has plans to cremate his remains at the Langata crematorium.

The cremation is according to his wish in which he told his family back in 1994, when he was interviewed by a local newspaper.

Further, the late Matiba warned his family against holding harambees and expensive ceremonies in what would be his sent off when he dies.

In a Feb 1994 newspaper article, the late is quoted demanding that his death shouldn't be treated as a public issue, and that he should be cremated upon his death.

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“I don’t want dancing, parties and harambees when I die. After all the Kikuyu traditionally never buried their dead.

“They used to take their bodies in to the forest to be devoured by hyenas, was that not wisdom?” he posed to the newspaper at the time.

Funeral services

Obituaries in local dailies since his death at the Karen Hospital last Sunday did not specify the date and place of burial, only indicating that there would be two funeral services for Matiba, the first one at the All Saints’ Cathedral in Nairobi on Wednesday, April 25, followed by another one at Ihura Stadium, Murang’a, the next day.

“The committee has tentatively agreed that Mzee will be cremated in Lang’ata on Friday according to his wishes which the family felt it has a duty to honour.

There will be a funeral service in Nairobi on Wednesday and at Ihura Stadium on Thursday before the cremation on Friday, which will be largely a private family affair,’’ a source revealed to a local daily.