Dead man’s return sends village into panic, but who did the family bury?

Julius Kitheka Mbiti with his sister Juliana Makaa at Kanyaa chief's office. Mbiti who has been away from the family for 26 years was thought to have died and was buried in 2011, only for him to come back home on Saturday. [PHOTO: PHILIP MUASYA / STANDARD]

Kitui, Kenya: Julius Kitheka Mbiti ‘died’ three years ago in the hands of a cruel gang. A body believed to be his was then carted away from Embu Provincial General Hospital mortuary to Kanyaa village in Kitui County and buried next to his parents’ graves.

But Mbiti reappeared last Saturday, sending the entire village into panic as some relatives, thinking they were seeing an apparition, disowned him.

The fact that Mbiti arrived home at night, aboard a boda boda and unable to trace his father’s home worsened the situation. After being dropped at Kanyaa market at 8pm, a place he left in 1988, Mbiti approached a group of people to ask for directions.

When he introduced himself, some took a quick look at him and fled. Soon word went round that a ‘ghost’ was in town, attracting a huge crowd of people who, from a safe distance, surrounded the man.

The turn of events confused Mbiti even more and he stood there like the lifeless body he was supposed to be. The report immediately reached Kanyaa location chief Boniface Tumbo who summoned Administration Police officers to confront the ‘demon’.

Startling miracle

“I listened to his tales and asked for his identity card. It was unbelievable...everybody was in shock,” says the chief, who then ordered the AP officers to take him to their camp since nobody was willing to accommodate him.

The following morning, Mbiti was told of his death and subsequent burial on September 9, 2011. The macabre news struck him like lightning. But at least he knew why everybody was scared of him.

With the help of a few brave people, Mbiti traced his young sister’s homestead. When he spotted her, he loudly introduced himself from the gate and begged her to take him in.

Juliana Makaa, his sister, who was part of the family members to identify Mbiti’s ‘body’ in the Embu mortuary, says she was engulfed with fear and trembled on seeing him.

“Where are you from...yet you died and we buried you?” Makaa asked Mbiti in Kamba. After a while, she was convinced this was indeed her brother. Her head still spinning, she offered him a cup of tea. Sister and brother later attended a church service to thank God for this startling miracle.

The story of Mbiti’s death began in August 2011 when his family received information that a man bearing almost similar names to him had been killed at a garage in Embu town where he worked as a watchman. The man was Titus Mbiti Kitheka.

Big sendoff

Makaa and her two brothers -- Mwilu and Joseph Mwasi -- were dispatched to identify the body and help bring it back home for burial. When they got to the mortuary, Makaa says they positively identified him “although the body was badly mutilated.”

“The body was swollen on the face but I recognised him. My two brothers also confirmed it was indeed him,” she says.

The three were also informed that ‘their brother’ had a wife and three daughters residing just outside Embu town. “We visited the family and met the wife and children for the first time,” adds Makaa. Interestingly, one of the daughters had been named after their mother in accordance with Kamba traditions.

This convinced the three that this was their dead brother’s family. Mbiti was given a big religious sendoff overseen by Akorino faithful who hailed him as a nabii (prophet).

Makaa remembers the burial with misty eyes. “The Akorino beat drums and danced, some wailing and others praising the man of God. His wife cried throughout,” she recalls. After the burial, the woman and her daughters went back to Embu. The family promised to bring her back home at a later date.

Throughout the interview with The Standard on Sunday, Mbiti, who was seated next to his sister, breathes heavily while shaking his head in disbelief. He says he has never lived in Embu, let alone having a family there.

Mbiti says through all the 26 years he was away, he oscillated between Nyeri and Samburu counties doing menial jobs. He detests the grave where it is claimed he is buried.

“I have not slept for days thinking about that grave. I don’t want to even see it...it gives me bad feelings,” he says.

Chief Tumbo took Mbiti to Migwani OCPD’s office where he made a formal report about his “resurrection”.

“The family has since been advised to get a court order that would facilitate exhumation of the body in their homestead should somebody claim it,” says Tumbo.

But even as he prepares to settle down, Mbiti faces a new hurdle. Kamba traditionalists argue that a person deemed dead cannot just walk home casually.

Mati Nyangi, 86, says Mbiti needs to undergo a ritual called kumya ng’ondu where a witchdoctor will walk him back to his ancestral home with a sheep, chanting incantations to appease the spirits.

Wonder and fear

“He is not allowed to eat or sleep at his father’s homestead before this is done, otherwise a calamity will strike the family. Death happened in the family while he was away and he did not attend the funerals, so he has been locked out by death,” says Nyangi.

At 60 years, Mbiti is aware of these Kamba dictates, that is why he has taken refuge at his sister’s homestead to await his fate. However, Pastor Joseph Mue of Kanyaa Worship Centre says he will mobilise fellow pastors to pray for Mbiti.

For now, the man has become an object of wonder and fear. Whenever he passes, people momentarily abandon their duties to gawk at the ‘dead man walking’ with the youth taking pictures using mobile phones.

The family has one final plea though. “Since we have our brother back, we don’t want the grave. The government should exhume it and take the remains far away from us,” pleads Mwasi.

Related Topics

death diappearance