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Okondo mass hel4
without a hitch
By ALFRED OND
and JOMNSTONE BIJKACHI
The memorial service for Mr Peter
Flabenga Okondo, held in Busia
yeslerday. went on without a hitch.
POlICe were present to ensure security because the hostile reaction
from Okondon clan over his cremation had bred suspicion that they
may disrupt the ceremony.
The Catholic priest who presided
over the Serb ice supported -rematon saying it was a better method of
disposing i Ithe dead
Father Dents O'Connor''id the
Prenn afler the ners e at Si I atentun Catholtc ChuLh.Sirinihain
Bunyala. that last 'stonday's crenralion of Mr ()kondo was a "beauticeremony.
fur
41
,
Cremation is less stressful and
more hygienic and I advocate it,"
he said.
The one-and-half-hour memorial
service was attended by hundreds
ofpeople some ofwhom came from
Uganda. The widow, Marie. and
berdaughtersdidnotatlend.
.
Mr Mudimo Okondo said his
mother could not attend because
she was tired "We ad sised her to
rcmi,n behind with my sisters in
Nairobi and ass at another mass that
will be held there
l'reseiiialsowas'sIr)korido's
hrtiterhit'si arL andc .tiands
Mi' I red Gum
(loserelatisesoftheformer
Minister who' hadearlierannounced the intention of disrupting
L0
(.,
the mass did not make good their
threat.
Fr O'Connor said that depending
on one's interpretation of the Bible,
cremation was accepted as a religious rite.
There are changes taking place in
the world and the church and cremarion will take root with time as a
means of disposing of bodies, he
added.
Fr O'Connor said the ceremony
was a relatis'ely new phenomenon
it the country dating ha k to betsseeti So and 100 years ago.
Cremation, he sod, as as ascepted
by about half the world's pi pula-
FROM PAGk
lion and there was no reason why it
houldnotbeacceptedtnKenya.
He said the disposal of the ashes
of Mr OkondO was a family matter
and "they can do whatever they
want with the ashes. They can even
throw them into the river or take
them abroad if they want"
Fr O'Connor said Mr Okondo
was a Catholic and the manner of
-
disposal of his body was a trivtal issue, The Catholic cremation, he
added, was different from the Hindu one as, in the latter case, the
body was placed on a pyre and the
second one has to light fire,
A Catholic, he said, placed the
body on a conveyer belt within a
cremation chapel and it then disappears into a closed enclosure. The
ceremony, he said, takes about 30
minutes,
Mr Mudimo said that after the
Nairobi service, there will be no
other rites. He also said he had met
clansmen and they all agreed to follow his late father's wishes.
He said the family had not heard
of any clansmen who had threatened to conduct a traditional burial
ceremony to appease Mr Okondo's
spirits.
He thanked those who had supported the family since his father
died.