The untimely demise of their kin and being unable to get the body from Abimbo mines in Bondo, has not only left pain in the hearts of family of Mr Martin Sikuku but also left them financially crippled.
The sad incident that occurred on December 2, 2021 at Abimbo, in Siaya County saw eight artisanal miners trapped inside the mines; one body was retrieved, six workers were rescued while Mr Tom Okwach is still stuck in the mines six months and 11 days on.
Before the incident at the mines, the family managed to afford the costs of daily needs that today they struggle to meet.
All well-wishers who had come in to help fund the operations to rescue the miner including the county government have since pulled out living the family in despair.
The family members, who were camping around the mine hoping that the body of their kin would miraculously appear, have since folded and went home, only leaving one of the deceased’s siblings who works at the mine, to monitor and guide rescue operations.
At the mine, activities have resumed, even as the family of Okwach helplessly hold on to hope that they may just meet the trapped miner in the midst of their gold digging ventures.
Mr Steve Aliwa, brother of Mr Okwach, says that majority of the people who once helped them financially search for the remains of their kin, have long given up and abandoned the course that seemed not to bear fruits.
The pleas for help from the non-governmental organizations and the government have fallen on deaf ears leaving them with the enormous and financially draining task of looking for their missing kin.
“It is a nightmare that I wish to wake up from. People have given up on this course; family members and friends are saying we should now let it go, but how will I leave my brother in the mines when I know he is there? What will I tell his children?” posed Mr Aliwa.
He added, “The untimely departure of my brother has left a big gap in our family; we have sold all that we could sell including a family’s piece of land in order to finance the search of the body from the mines, and we have incurred huge debts that we don’t know how we shall repay.”
Currently there are 15 artisanal miners, who have volunteered to help the family in retrieving the remains; however, the daily fuel demand is weighing them down.
Mr Aliwa said the volunteers only work when they get fuel yet they need diesel to siphon water out of the shafts and petrol to drive the crane that removes the soil out of the mine.
“For us to succeed we need to work for two weeks without stopping and our daily fuel consumption is 20 liters of petrol and 20 liters of diesel,” said Mr Aliwa who is still optimistic that 10 days of continuous search would enable them reach the body of Okwach.
Mr Okwach has left a widow and two school going children who also need financial support for their daily needs.
Mr Fredrick Ogunde, Okwach’s uncle said the prolonged rains experienced in the area have further thwarted the efforts of getting their kin from the mines, and currently the family is just hoping to get even a fraction of the remains.
“Water filled the shafts of the mines, and the family needed to hire an excavator to remove the soil from the blocked shaft and continue with the search, but we did not get it. Having sold all that the family could sell, there is no way the family can afford an excavator to aid in the search,” said Mr Ogunde.
According to the Luo culture as explained by Mzee Daniel Okuku of Kagana Kanyarwanda, when the body of a missing kin cannot be traced there are some cultural practices that are carried out in order to give the family closure.
The family has however declined to go the traditional way of burying banana suckers in place of the missing kin in order to get closure.
“Such incidents happened in the past and culturally a banana would be buried in a place to represent the deceased; it was done in such a way that it was equivalent to the body of the deceased,” explained Mr Okuku.
Other than the banana sucker, a stone from the point the body is buried would be taken home and buried like the body of the deceased.
“If someone is buried far away from home, there is a need to have another grave within their home and therefore a stone from the soil where he is buried would be used to symbolize the body,” he said.
He added, “The third way would be burying the soil, the family members would scoop soil from the land where their kin went missing or buried and carry it home. They would dig a grave and bury the soil there; this was meant to show the future generation that someone was buried there.”
Graves are very important to the Luo community because it is believed that the dead see all that goes on even after they are buried. BY DAILY NATION