Classic 105 FM breakfast show host Maina Kageni has made his end-of-life preferences clear: he wants to be cremated rather than buried.
His revelation follows a recent announcement by the Ministry of Health and the Nairobi County Government regarding the impending closure of Lang’ata Cemetery, one of Nairobi’s main public cemeteries, due to dangerous overcrowding and health risks.
“Lang’ata Cemetery is full and is being shut down,” said Kageni. “It was declared full 20 years ago, yet we’ve continued to bury our loved ones in shallow graves—sometimes on top of others. That’s a serious health risk.”
Kageni also took issue with certain long-held cultural burial customs, particularly the practice of transporting bodies across vast distances for interment.
“I’ve never understood this African tradition of moving a body 500 kilometres for burial,” he said. “People die in America, and we insist on flying the body back just to bury it. The body is a lifeless shell. We must begin to normalize cremation and stop burying people on family land — it makes the land unsellable. Just look at Kisii; it’s barely the size of Kawangware, but everyone wants to be buried there!”
He went on to disclose that he has already included cremation in his will. “When I die, I’ve made it clear — I’m going to be cremated,” he affirmed.
