Have you ever imagined living in an environment where wailing and sadness are the norm?
Well, that is the life of David Wanjohi, a long-serving mortician at Nairobi Funeral Home.
Mr Wanjohi was employed as a mortuary attendant in 1983 attached to the City Mortuary, which has now been renamed Nairobi Funeral Home by Governor Johnson Sakaja.
Since then, he has risen through the ranks and is now the senior superintendent at the facility.
Just behind the morgue, where more than 300 bodies are preserved daily, is a compound that houses the mortuary attendants.
It has been home to Mr Wanjohi for more than 10 years.
He raised his family there until recently, when he felt the need to relocate to a different environment.
He explains that to him, the surroundings were at first scary, but as years passed by, he became used to it, and so was his wife, who later on didn’t want them to live anywhere else.
“I lived with my family inside this compound for more than ten years. There is peace within the compound, no problem here. My wife didn’t want us to leave,” Mr Wanjohi said.
According to him, most of the mortuary attendants prefer to live inside the compound because of its security and peace, even as the compound is not protected by any police officers apart from the perimeter wall.
He recounts an incident that happened to his son when, as a young boy, he was playing in the compound and came across a coffin.
One of the bereaved family had come to pick up the body of their loved one, and in the process of viewing the body, the innocent boy who was playing around saw what was inside.
“One of my sons came across a coffin while they were playing and didn’t know what was inside…he came to the house and said that an old man was sleeping in that thing…we had to move a distance away from the immediate house which was near the morgue.”
That was the only challenge Mr Wanjohi recalls, facing his family while living inside the morgue compound.
He says it is difficult to find a vacant house since they have access to clean water and electricity from the county government.
Mr Wanjohi says despite working in a mortuary for the better part of his life, he has never lost the feeling of losing someone and that as he wakes up every morning, his main aim is to encourage the bereaved families.
“I usually try to comfort the bereaved families here, and even take some to the canteen and buy for them water, which will give them hope and confidence. I usually walk around from the office to the morgue to see if there is any family member who needs counseling. Whenever I talk to two or three people, I feel very happy.”
