Jacob Juma Will Be Buried With A Knife And A Torch To Avenge His Death. Here Are 3 Other Prominent Luhya Leaders Whose Burials Were STRANGE (Photos)

There are 18 sub tribes that make up the larger Luhya community. Each sub tribe has its own distinct dialect and traditions. Bukusu’s burial traditions are unique and strange to outsiders.

Jacob Juma’s sibling Grisham Juma revealed Luhya elders from the Batura clan of Bukusu sub tribe will conduct traditional rituals to avenge the death of Jacob Juma.

The slain businessman was assassinated on Thursday last week by unknown people. The family has been eager to find his killers though the police are dragging on their investigation.

Luhya elders have decided to avenge the death of their son on their own. Jacob Juma will be buried with a knife and a torch which his ghost will use to haunt his killers.

The weird burial is in accordance with Luhya customary rites befitting a prominent person whose life was robbed in a cruel manner.

But Jacob Juma’s burial is not a shocker, prominent Luhya leaders have been buried in strange way before him.

Below is a list of Luhya elders whose burial were strange:

1.  Nabongo Japheth Wambani Rapando, the fallen king of the Wanga people

If history was one of the subjects you were taught in primary and high school, then you know the Wanga people from Kakamega County have had a king since time immemorial.

You are all too aware of Nabongo Mumia, the famous Wanga king who collaborated with the British during colonial era.

Nabongo Japheth Wambani Rapando was his descendant. Rapando was buried in a special coffin while seated when he died in 2012.

But his burial was strange to his own people. All Wanga kings before him were buried while seated on a stool wrapped in animal skin.

Rapando’s burial upheld Wanga traditions but at the same time it was laced with modernity; a special coffin which is a symbol of Western influence.

2. Kijana Wamalwa

The late Vice President was buried in his ancestral home in Trans Nzoia County in 2003 after his family fought the government’s bid to bury him at Heroes’ Square in Nairobi.

Wamalwa was buried in accordance with Bukusu tradition. The burial was a private ceremony done off cameras by close relatives. Bukusu experts believe the late VP was buried facing the East.

But the real shocker happened last year; Wamalwa’s widow Yvonne Nambia, former Minister of Trade who’s now the UN Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Mukhisa Kituyi (Wamalwa’s cousin) among other family members, travelled to London’s Royal Free Hospital to bring back the spirit of Kijana Wamalwa.

The family had to travel to the UK 12 years after his death to fulfill Bukusu cultural rite. The Baengele clan pressured the family to reunite Wamalwa’s spirit with his body.

 According to the clan, the spirit of a person remains ‘stuck’ in a foreign land if they die there. The family has to bring it back after the burial to reunite it with the body.

3. Martin Shikuku

He prepared his grave in advance for his funeral eight years before he died on August 22^nd 2012 at the Texas Cancer Centre in Hurlingham.

The former Butere MP was buried 50 meters from the main house in the coffin he bought for himself. He prepared for his funeral in advance to ease the burial expenses for his family.

Unconfirmed sources say mourners went back home on an empty stomach as there was no food for them at the funeral.

Credit: Daily Nation, the Standard