Who Stole the Funeral Contributions for Douglas Odero “Daggy”?

The spirit of Douglas Odero has refused to rest easily as it is alleged his children might not be reporting to school tomorrow since money collected during his burial was misappropriated.

Douglas Odero was buried on 23 December 2023 in Ng’ura village of Central Alego Ward in Siaya County. All senior politicians in the region including  Governor James Orengo, Deputy Governor Dr William Oduol, the Speaker of Siaya County Assembly George Okode and the Leader of Minority in the National Assembly Opiyo Wandayi, among others, were present.

According to an inside source two ladies purporting to be close friends to the deceased set up a WhatsApp group to oversee contributions for burial arrangements.

As the two ladies are quite vocal in Siaya political circles people took the group to be a credible conduit for channeling contributions and an unspecified amount of money was subsequently collected. 

When donations scaled the 1.5 million mark updates on individual contributions stopped and on the eve of burial the group was disbanded, altogether.

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At Douglas Odero’s burial the committee said they had spent KES 1 million in funeral expenses and the remaining KES 800,000 would be handed over to the family. They even said how they intended to divide that money between parents, widow and children.

So far, reliable sources indicate nobody has received a penny.

Reports in DalanewsKe immediately after the burial that KES 400,000 were kept in a holding account by a senior politician allied to Douglas were refuted; prompting further speculation that the amount had been stolen clean.

Strangely when he took the podium to speak at the burial Siaya Township Ward MCA Obiero Otare said KES 900,000 had been saved and not the KES 800,000 reported by the committee.

The two ladies who formed the group were also absolved by our sources of handling the money directly. So between the Treasurer and the Chairman who stole the money for the burial of Daggy?

Remember Hon. Atandi contributed one bull, the coffin and the suit in which the deceased was buried. Hon. Ababa contributed a bull. Stoab Sacco contributed hearse, lowering gear and KES 100,000.

Siaya Political Forum contributed KES 400,000 while the collection at Awelo raised KES 200,000. Adagi did the decorations and casket flowers. All these monies and contributions are separate from the KES 1.9 million acknowledged as having been collected by the committee.

Who is fooling who?

Those who donated generously are now faced with issues of credibility and trust. What happens when another member of the circle expires now that mistrust and corruption has seeped into the circle of friends? Especially what happens to the young offspring left behind by Douglas Odero?

During his life Douglas worked as a bodyguard to the Alego-Usonga MP Samuel Onunga Atandi. When he died it transpired that he did not have a decent house in the village. It also transpired that his spouse is a mere housewife with little or no skills to fend for their two children.

Daggy was a breadwinner as well to his ageing parents and whoever is knowingly sitting on money purposely collected to offset their needs could be inviting a curse.

Lately the Luo people from Nyanza region of Kenya have made burials a highly lucrative business with ostentatious shows of affluence that sometimes masks the reality.

Those who turned up for the burial at Ng’ura village could see that the family of Douglas Odero is poor and whoever stole that money should swallow their pride and return it.