Kenya: Ritual Burial Heifer to Be Exhumed

Animal rights activists, Kikuyu elders and the local administration yesterday protested a bizarre ritual where a heifer was buried alive allegedly to forestall a bad omen befalling a Murang'a family. The Maragua district officer Geoffrey Mutegi ordered the exhumation of the heifer which was buried alive next to the grave of 84-year old Mzee Elisha Mugucia Wang'era who died before he could receive the dowry of his elder sister which was supposed to have been paid to their father.

According to the family, Mzee Elisha had left instructions that if he died before his in-laws paid the dowry, they should bury a live heifer next to his grave when he died. Yesterday, the Kikuyu council of elders spokesman John Waiganjo dismissed claims by the family that the live burial of a heifer was part of the Kikuyu customs or that it would avert a curse on the family.

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