Long wait for S.M. Otieno kin to end his burial rites
Risper Ochieng’, widow of S.M. Otieno’s brother Joash Ougo, at the family's graveyard in Nyalgunga village in Siaya county on May 27, 2017. PHOTO | TONNY OMONDI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
The passage of time does not seem to have washed away memories of the prominent lawyer who died in December 1986.
In the quiet Nyamila village, a few kilometres from Siaya town centre, hope lingers that even though the lawyer’s widow Wambui Otieno died in 2011 without visiting the homestead, his children will one day come to pay respect to their father’s grave and unveil a cross to mark an end to the burial rites.
Thirty years ago, lawyer Silvano Melea Otieno, popularly known as S.M. Otieno, was buried at his ancestral home in Siaya after a protracted legal battle between his widow and his clan that had captured the nation’s attention for months.
But the passage of time does not seem to have washed away memory of the prominent lawyer who died in December 1986.
