Plans for the ”Kenya Maggero Memorial” are complete. A meeting held yesterday at Continental Hotel in Stockholm resolved that the event will take place on Saturday 3rd February 2007 at the “Wananchi Pavillion” situated at Högbergsgatan 48 (Tube: Medborgaplatsen or Söder Station).
According to Mr. Jared Aroka, the Chairperson of the Memorial committee, “The function begins at 18:00 and all Kenyans, friends of Maggero and members of Maggero’s family are welcome.
Officals of the Memorial Committee are as follows: Chairperson, Mr. Jared Aroka, Vice Chairperson, Mr. Antony Adiwa, Secretary, Mr. Okoth Osewe, Vice secretary Mr. Joshua Oyugi, Treasurer, Mrs Hellen Opwapo, Vice treasurer, Mrs Caroline Ayodo, Organising secretary Mr. Jared Odero while the Masters of Ceremony will be Mr. Martin Ngatia and Mr. Dancan Munala.
The event, which will cost 15.000 kr, will feature prayers by Pastor Beatrice Kamau and several speakers. Dr. Otieno Wariaro, who is regarded as the late Maggero’s best friend and confidant, will deliver the Eulogy while other speakers on the line up are: Mr. Osore Ondusye, Mrs Prisca Forsman, Mrs Jane Owili, Mr. Lars Asker, Mr. Morre Petersson Ms Sofia Njoroge, Mrs Hellen Opwapo among others. Music will be available in plenty featuring Kenyan DJs. Entrence will be free while food will also be free.
The newly appointed Committee resolved to release a statement taking up all the issues which had come up since Maggero passed away especially on the question of exclusion of Maggero’s Kenyan family from funeral arrangements, cremation of his body, delay in releasing information about Mr. Maggero’s death, the view from the Luo culture, the writing of wills among the Kenyan community in Sweden among others.
According to Mr. Jared Aroka, “Kenyans will continue to die in Sweden and even be buried or cremated in this country but this needs to be made clear well in advance”.
Mr. Aroka said that if another Kenyan passes away and funeral circumstances resemble those of the Maggero case, it is most likely that the Kenyan community will intervene once again.
He dismissed the view that a funeral is purely a “family affair”, taking the position that the Luo and many African communities view funeral arrangements as the responsibility of the immediate family in conjunction with other family members of the deceased, clan members and friends alike.
Mr. Aroka told KSB that Maggero’s family should not have dismissed Kenyans who were calling for the involvement of Maggero’s family in Kenya in the funeral arrangements. He defended the planned memorial service saying that Kenyans who knew Mr. Maggero had a right to mourn the late Mzee in their own way.
Mr. Martin Ngatia, Vice chairperson of ODM-K Scandinavia and Chairperson of KESDEMO, said that the case of Maggero should be a “wake up call” arguing that African cultures needed to be defended especially cultures that still have meaning to African people.
He criticized the Kenyan government for having failed to intervene to delay the process of Maggero’s cremation before family members could arrive in Sweden. He said that Mr. Maggero never relinquished his Kenyan citizenship and as such, it was the responsibility of the government to intervene in the case to delay his cremation instead of leaving him to be treated “like a dog”.
Okoth Osewe
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