Kirima burial team gets down to business

Kirima Burial Committee chairman Maina Wanjigi (center) with Joseph Kamotho (left), Charles Rubia and family members address the press in Kitisiru on December 30, 2010. Photo/SULEIMAN MBATIAH 

Posted Thursday, December 30 2010 at 20:31

The family members of businessman cum politician Gerishon Kirima on Thursday came together to make arrangements for transporting his body from South Africa where he died while undergoing treatment.

During a press briefing held at the Kitisuru home of Mr Kirima, the members appointed a seven-man committee led by former Kamukunji MP Maina Wanjigi to oversee the funeral arrangements.

“My committee will ensure that we issue updates to the Press daily on any development that will occur,” Mr Wanjigi said.

Other members of the funeral organising committee are former Kangema MP J. J. Kamotho, former Starehe MP Charles Rubia, former Nairobi Stock Exchange chairman Jimnah Mbaru, Equity Bank chairman Peter Munga, former Nacada boss Joseph Kaguthi and AIC Bishop Michael Michuki.

Mr Wanjigi said his committee had not yet completed the funeral programme since the body was still in South Africa.

“We are also consulting with the African Inland Church clergy on the date when the burial will take place,” Mr Wanjigi added.

But it was confirmed that prayers will take place daily between 6pm and 8pm at the Kitisuru home.

Earlier, his youngest wife had claimed she had been kept in the dark about her husband’s final movements and expressed surprise that he had travelled out of the country while she retained his passport.

Mr Kirima’s children from earlier marriages said it was too early to comment on their plans.

Some members of the family of former assistant minister Gerishon Kirima on Thursday claimed they were in the dark following his death in South Africa while undergoing treatment.

The Nation however got access to Anne Kirima who declined to comment on the matter saying that the family was still consulting on what steps to take.

“We are still consulting.” When asked whether they had completed plans to airlift Mr Kirima’s body she said: “I cannot comment on that. We are still consulting.”

Speaking at the residence of the former Starehe MP in Kitisuru, Nairobi, his third wife Teresia Wairimu said they learnt of his death through the Press.

“We have not been officially informed of his death and we are still waiting for information (on what transpired),” a distraught Mrs Kirima said on Thursday.

Accompanied by Mr Kirima’s younger brother Peter Kuria, 77, and other family members, Mrs Wairimu said other members of the family had kept them in dark since the former MP was flown out for treatment to the UK and later transferred to South Africa where he died while undergoing treatment.

As a sombre mood engulfed the Nairobi residence, Mrs Kirima lamented: “It is still a mystery on how my husband was flown out to the UK and later to South Africa yet his travel documents are still in the house.”

She wondered: “Who authorised the issuance of a new passport?” Mrs Kirima insisted that funeral arrangements would be held in the Kitisuru residence while the burial would be held in his rural home in Kiruri Location in Kangema, “according to his will”.

The politician was thrust back into the limelight this year when his family was embroiled in a dramatic fight for access to the ailing tycoon and control of his vast property.

Mr Kirima had three wives. One died and another is separated. The children of his first two wives were involved in a dispute with Mrs Kirima with whom Mr Kirima was living in Kitisuru, Nairobi.