From a tender age, she always wanted to be a nurse to take care of the sick, but now, she says, spending the day with dead bodies puts food on her table.
After completing secondary school in 2014 with an average grade of C, Filinda Kamau's dream was to join the Kenya Medical Training College (KMTC) to study nursing.
However, due to the humble background she came from, her single mother was unable to pay her fees, forcing Ms Kamau to stay at home to pave the way for her other four siblings to at least attend school.
She says that after staying at home for months, a neighbour approached Ms Kamau and told her that the University of Nairobi's Chiromo campus was offering a course in mortuary science and that she could try it as it was affordable compared to nursing.
With this good news, Ms Kamau told her mother about the idea, but she was reluctant at first.
"At the time, my mother wondered how her daughter could work in a mortuary or handle the dead, but after much persuasion, she agreed to pay the fees," she recalls.
Filinda Kamau, 26, a mortician at the Egerton University Funeral Home in Njoro, Nakuru County on May 26, 2023 inspects refrigerators used to store bodies at the facility.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
Ms Kamau enrolled for the Certificate in Mortuary Science and studied for three months. She completed the course and was given an internship at Nakuru City Mortuary, where she assisted the mortuary attendant.
As fate would have it, in 2015, Ms Kamau was taken on by the Nakuru County government on a contract basis and posted to the Egerton University mortuary, where she currently works as a mortuary attendant and assistant pathologist.
"My father died when we were very young, leaving our mother with the huge responsibility of caring for us alone. I had to sacrifice so that my siblings could continue their studies. When I was growing up, I wanted to be a nurse or work in a hospital, but now spending my days with dead bodies is what puts food on my table," Ms Kamau says confidently, referring to her work as a mortician.
Dressed in a white lab coat, the 26-year-old took the Nation team through her day, saying she always arrives at work at 8am and says a personal prayer before going through the records to see if any new bodies were brought to the facility the previous night.
She says she later goes around the mortuary to ensure that all the bodies in the refrigerator are well labelled as per the records to avoid confusion and missing bodies, and her day of receiving new bodies begins.
She revealed that when she receives a body from families, she first has to confirm death by examining the body and putting it aside for two hours to make sure it is not in Lazarus syndrome (referring to the biblical Lazarus who came back to life).
Later, she washes the body and embalms it with a chemical that includes a variety of preservatives, sanitizers, disinfectants and additives to temporarily prevent decomposition and restore a natural appearance for viewing after death, before storing the body in the refrigerator.
"My job as a mortician is to receive the bodies from the bereaved families, record even the smallest details of the person; if they were brought with an ID, the clothes they were wearing when they were brought to the facility. I have been working for more than five years and I love my job," the mother of one told Nation.Africa.
According to her, there are risks in her job, but she has slowly learnt to cope with them.
For example, Ms Kamau says the chemicals used to embalm corpses at the mortuary are very strong and dangerous if inhaled.
Other risks include accidents caused by sharp objects, especially during post-mortem, fluids that may splash on the mortician's skin during cleaning, and moving bodies from one place to another, which can cause disease.
During the interview, she also recalled the day a body accidentally fell out of a trolley, leaving her traumatised.
She recounted the frightening moment during her training at Chiromo, which almost made her change her mind about working in the funeral industry.
"I was with my friend and when we pulled out one of the drawers where a body was kept, a body fell out. It turned out that the drawer was not fully functional. I ran away and that incident traumatised me," she said.
She revealed that the incident left her with nightmares, but she later recovered from it.
"That was then, now, the moment I leave the morgue, I forget everything about it. I don't have nightmares," she added.
In addition to her normal duties, Ms Kamau offers free counselling to the bereaved. She talks to them and grieves with them.
She encourages other women to take up the profession, saying it is a profession like any other and they should not be afraid.
She says that it makes you no different and that a job in a mortuary is just like any other. She has also been showing off her work on TikTok to encourage more women to join the profession.
Photo credit: Boniface Mwangi | Nation Media Group
"When I met my boyfriend, I just told him I was working in Egerton without revealing much until he came to visit me here. He was surprised to see what I do, but he later accepted that his girlfriend works in a mortuary," she revealed.
"My favourite food is still meat. I cannot go a day without it," she added.
However, Ms Kamau says her job has in the past cost her friendships with people who disapproved of her career choice.
"I just plead with the government to at least increase our salaries. Morticians are trained. We are the ones who handle the dead before their families take them for burial," she added.
Mr Samwel Wanaina, the manager of the funeral parlour, noted that she was passionate about her work and an inspiration to many, adding that anyone who had interacted with her knew Mrs Kamau to be kindhearted.
