Kenyan's Body Stranded In Stockholm
KYMS
The body of Pauline Odanga, a 39 year old Kenyan lady who died in Stockholm
about two months ago, is still in the mortuary because Kenyans and friends
have failed to raise enough money to transport her body to Kenya for burial.
At least Sek Sek 28,000 is needed to transport the body to Kenya while
another Sek 12,000 is needed to buy air tickets for Pauline's two daughters
so that they can accompany their mother's body to Kenya for burial. Since
Pauline comes from a poor family, Sek 5,000 is needed to transport the body
from Nairobi to Kakamega where Pauline hails from. This brings the total
amount to Sek 45,000.
So far, the Swedish Social Office has promised to pay Sek 12,000 to buy a
coffin and to embalm the body. On Saturday 29th April, Kenyans and friends
held a fund raising and Sek 7,000 was raised. This means that the amount
currently needed is Sek 38,000. If enough money is not raised in the next
two weeks, Pauline will be buried in Sweden. This is because it is becoming
expensive keeping the body in the mortuary. During the Saturday
fund-raising, Mr. Michael Sergon, the Kenyan Ambassador to Scandinavia was
the Guest of Honour.
According to a fax message signed by Mr. J.K. Kianda, the District Officer
at Sabatia Division in Wodanga, Pauline's family would like the body to be
transported home for burial. "The family members wish the remains be buried
in their land in Kadoli sub-location, Busali East location in my Division",
says the fax message that is dated 17th March 2000.
The major reason why it has been difficult raising money for Pauline is that
the tiny Kenyan population of 300 in Stockholm is exhausted following a
series of death-related harambees. Since January this year, 7 Harambees have
been organised all of which have been successful. In January, Kenyans teamed
up to raise Sek 26,000 for Mr. Ochieng Nyambok who had lost a son in a fatal
road accident in Stockholm. Although the son was buried in Sweden, Ochieng
travelled to Kenya to take the soul of his late son home in accordance with
Luo traditions.
Then in February, Sara Nielssen, a Kenyan lady, lost a brother and sister.
Kenyans here raised Sek 14,000 for Sarah thereby enabling her to travel to
Kenya to attend the burial of her two family members. A week after the Sarah
Nielssen harambee, Bernard Njoroge lost his father in Kenya. The community
congregated to raise Sek 12,000 to enable Mr. Njoroge to travel home to bury
his late father.
As Mr. Njoroge left for Kenya, Joyce Njoki had just died in Stockholm. The
circumstances that surrounded Joyce's death meant that Colins Kariuki, her
son, needed to come to Sweden so that certain issues could be sorted out.
Once again, Kenyans teamed up to raise Sek 8,600 to help purchase a ticket
for Colins so that the boy could travel to Sweden. Colins arrived in
Stockholm five days after the harambee and is now helping with funeral
arrangements of his late mother.
Just as arrangements of the Colins Ticket harambee were being finalised,
Correne Ochieng, another Kenyan, lost her mother in the Akamba-Shaggy bus
accident that killed 76 people in Kericho in March. Kenyans met to show
solidarity with Correne and to help raise funds so that Correne could travel
to Kenya immediately to bury her mother. A total of Sek 26,000 was raised
and Correne travelled to Kenya two days after the harambee.
As the above harambees were continuing, the body of Pauline Odanga, who died
as a result of illness, continued to lie in the mortuary. Signals were being
awaited from Pauline's family as to how to go about with funeral
arrangements. Pauline's family communicated to say that they wanted the body
to be transported to Kenya for burial.
Because of the difficulty in raising funds under the circumstances described
above, we are appealing to Kenyans abroad, friends and sympathisers to
intervene by sending cash. Pauline's family has been waiting for too long
for the body to arrive home for burial. This will not happen if we do not
manage to raise enough funds. An account has been opened by the Pauline
Odanga's Family Support Committee to facilitate mobilisation of funds.
Details of the account are as follows:
Bank: Nordbanken - Sweden.
Account number: NBBKSESS 40511754430
Signatories to the Account are:
Mr. Laban Mberi (Chairman)
Mr. Joseph Karanja (Secretary)
We are sending this appeal as a matter of urgency. We hope that the Kenyan
community abroad will intervene so that Pauline's body can be transported to
Kenya for burial. While sending money, quote NBBKSESS which is the code for
Nordbanken's International financial transactions. We kindly request the
reader to circulate this e-mail as widely as possible. Thanking you in
advance,
Yours sincerely,
Mr. Laban Mberi,
Chairman,
Pauline Odanga's Family Support Committee
Stockholm.
Tel: ++ 46 8 740 3320
e-mail: mb...@hotmail.com
Hans-Georg Michna
deceased, I'm wondering whether such money wouldn't be better
spent helping the living, rather than the dead.
Hans-Georg
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