The 'death economy' in Luo community and the changing dynamics of burial rites

No one has an appointment with it; stealthily it approaches, and randomly it strikes. Death has no appeal, and it brings a sudden finality between the living and the dead when it visits.

Communities in Kenya and around the world have cultures that tend to portray death in unique ways.

Among the Luo in Kenya, death is considered a transition from this world to the afterlife. It is perceived to be a transition from the human (earthly) form of existence to the spirit world of existence.

The Luo believe that after death, the spirit of the departed person takes on a magnanimous disposition to be one of the guardian spirits of the community. 

Such departed persons, especially men, were escorted to the after-world to become purveyors of good omen; hence, "a Luo really never dies," affirms Prof. Charles Owuor Olunga, a renowned Social Anthropologist from the University of Nairobi.

The Luo community is known for its elaborate funeral rites and traditions that leave other communities in awe.

Speedy high-level burial

The death and speedy funeral rites of three prominent personalities from the Luo community in the recent past have brought certain Luo funeral and burial norms to the fore.

When the late Raila Odinga took his final bow, he desired in his will to be interred within the ensuing 72 hours. Despite receiving an elaborate State funeral, his wish was carried out. Raila died on October 15, 2025 and was buried on October 19, 2025.

Former Chief of Defence Forces General Francis Ogolla, who died in office in 2024, was also buried within 72 hours on April 21, 2024, at his home in Mor, Alego, Siaya County. 

To the surprise of many, Dr Stephen Ochiel, a leading specialist doctor who headed the Kenya Medical Association among his other achievements, died, and within 24 hours, he had been cremated. 

Ogolla’s Will

General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the late former Chief of Defence Forces, was among 10 people killed on April 18, 2024, when a military helicopter crashed en route to a tour of duty, flying over Elgeyo Marakwet County. 

General Ogolla, in his will, specified that his burial should take place within 72 hours of his death. Further, he instructed his family that he should be buried without a coffin, echoing the philosophical truth that from dust we come and to dust we return.

The late General Ogolla was accorded full military rites at his interment, during which there was a military reveille, a call traditionally used to wake soldiers for duty, but in death, it refers to hope in the afterlife. 

His relatives and the public were left tongue-tied at the General’s will, which ensured minimal expenditure during his funeral and almost immediate continuity of life for his family, thereafter.

The Ochiel cremation 

Former president of the Kenya Medical Association, Stephen Ochiel, a long-serving Obstetrician and Gynaecologist, died on October 19, 2025, at the age of 76 years.

Within 24 hours of his demise, he was cremated, according to his will. The method of interment of this eminent doctor from the Luo community took many by surprise; cremation is not one of the favourite options of interment for Kenyans, let alone the Luo community.

Herein, Prof. Olunga asserts that such cases are treated in light of their individual merit, to shed light on why the deceased would opt for this way of interment. 

Prof. Olungah believes that cremation is very unlike the Luo culture and it is a consequence of modernity or an offshoot of peculiar circumstances, such as withering discord in the family due to polygamy, abandonment of home and its culture, or taking on a different culture in urban spaces, among others. 

Raila’s interment within 72 hours

Former Prime Minister and longtime opposition stalwart Raila Amolo Odinga died of cardiac arrest while receiving treatment in India. Devamatha Hospital in Kerala, India, said Odinga, 80, had been under treatment for diabetes, hypertension, and chronic kidney disease.

Raila, who celebrated his 80th birthday in January this year, died just a few weeks after his age-mate, fellow Luo elder and former ally Dalmas Otieno, breathed his last.

It took some time before Dalmas Otieno, who died on September 7, 2025, at his Nairobi residence, was buried on October 2, 2025, at his Kangeso home in Homa Bay County.

However, Raila’s interment took a different turn when his family informed the State, which had opted to accord him an official State burial, of his wish to be interred within 72 hours after death. 

Contrary to what is the norm over mourning periods in the Nyanza region, Odinga’s burial did not have the now-normal feeding of mourners or slaughtering of animals for consumption at the funeral.

Elders from Kang’o, Ka Jaramogi, said this decision was in line with the wishes of the late Raila, and his desire for simplicity and financial restraint at his funeral. 

Luo Council of Elders Bondo Sub-County Chairman Maurice Oloo said, “Odinga believed that death should not burden families or communities financially. He often told us funerals should be simple and resources should not all be directed to feed mourners.” 

Feasting, pomp, and colour in funerals

As a norm, in the recent past, the demise of a Luo had become synonymous with long, drawn-out, intricate funeral arrangements. 

During my tête-à-tête with Prof. Olunga, he concurred that funerals today take a long time to conclude, but he clarified this was not the case with traditional Luo funerals.

The anthropologist shares that the period from death to burial took a maximum of 24 hours, with the biggest challenge being the lack of means for body preservation.

He went on to explain that on the bright side, under traditional funeral rites, swift burial took place courtesy of nearby family and friends of the deceased. 

According to Olunga, the modern, lengthy Luo funeral preparations have been misunderstood to mean the bereaved family is being licked dry.

Instead, he says, the many incidences of long-drawn burial arrangements are normally the struggles of poor families insisting on giving the bereaved a befitting send-off, yet lacking in resources and networks. 

Prof. Olunga contrasts this situation with that of well-heeled families who can raise the required resources for a befitting funeral in a short time without using a single cent from their coffers. He suggested that some Luos would opt to be cremated as they lack ties with their homes of origin.

The cure to this, he says, needs Luo men to go back to a cultural concept called “Iko Biero,” which roughly translates to “burying the placenta” at home. This would necessarily tie every Luo man to his home back in the village and its development, as he remains an integral part of it.

Broken social nets for funeral rites 

The anthropologist pointed out that in times gone by, the Luo community had a policy of “Onge Iro,” loosely translated to “no-smoke” from the home of the bereaved until the burial takes place.

This meant that the relatives and neighbours of the deceased would come together to help his family entertain and feed guests, plus the surviving family members, until his burial, which would be done shortly thereafter.

Prof. Olungah says these social nets are broken. He says that swift burials were conducive to communities moving on because when it took too long before burial, it stopped people from going on with their normal activities.

The professor says to the old Luo community, “death was a comma, not a full-stop.” After death, life began on the other plane at full speed. This gave the community reason for hope and purpose to live on.

Naturally, the Luo community undertakes their norms, culture, and traditions with pomp, colour, and purpose… many misconceive the loud, colourful, or explicit rituals to mean extravagance.

Necessity and superfluity in funerals

Over time, a gradual re-ordering of the norms and traditions around funerals took place among the Luo community. Away from undertaking fast, community-resourced, simple, and dignified funerals, it soon became a protracted and financially draining affair.

Children of the deceased would be waiting for them to come back from faraway cities or overseas, as the family sought resources to keep feeding throngs of people who visit the family at home to condole with them. These groups of mourners were served snacks and assorted meals all through the day. 

Further, the norm changed from being buried in simple animal skin within the grave to the situation now, where the deceased's household picks up all the tab for each expense.

Coming from a place where burials were done in 24 hours, to where a whole economy based on death encompasses weeks before burial, sourcing for outside catering services, chairs, tables, cutlery, flowers, public address system, dee-jay system, carpets, casket, and casket-lowering machines, is a 360-degree turn. 

This has bred a thriving “death economy system,” which has evolved to dominate the sphere of funerals among the Luo.

At times, the consumption at funerals borders on the absurd for the sheer financial resources directed to non-essentials.

Some within the Luo community have often and loudly wondered what is necessary and what is superfluous during funerals!

Raila’s dislike for funeral extravagance

Odinga’s will to be interred within 72 hours is a lethal strike at the heart of Luo funeral delays and a show of opulence.

It is bound to bring many to the realisation that death, too, is personal, even as particular choices could be made over you by your family after your demise for posterity. 

Raila had requested to be buried beside his mother, who had passed on while he was in detention in 1984. But as Prof Olungah puts it, this request within his will was tempered with reality as a compromise was struck that he be buried a bit further towards his father’s mausoleum; in the hope that one day a mausoleum could be built in his honour just as his father’s was done.

Raila's stand against opulence and unnecessary delays during Luo funerals might reinforce public opinion on what is acceptable and what is objectionable.

Before he passed on, Raila once observed that funerals among the Luo had become an industry that is impoverishing many. 

He said, “Every day, every week, people are involved in endless planning of expensive funerals. Our Muslim brothers inter their deceased within hours after death. In our case, it at times takes more than a month before one is buried. We must change this.” Raila, in death, as was in life, chose to act on his opinion. 

Celebration, colour and flair in the DNA

Some in the Luo community are of the opinion that funerals should not be exorbitant but rather should remain simple, sombre, and dignifying, close to traditional interment ceremonies of old. 

However, Prof. Olunga begs to differ when he says the Luo community's way of doing things, in times gone by, such as conducting funerals, was not a muted and dull affair but one full of celebration, flair, and colour.

It was, of necessity, different from other communities, because death was a celebration of life and passage into the next world. 

Could these changing approaches to mourning and funerals among the Luo spell the death knell for the economic activities around Luo funerals? 

Might Raila, in death, and his contemporaries, have stirred a soft cultural revolution in the Luo community? 

If so, this might, in due time, affect the “death economy” that has been thriving on the demise of members of the community and beyond.