K24 news anchor Eric Njoka on Wednesday revealed his part time job as a morgue attendant in family’s mortuary business Mukoe Funeral Home located in Githunguri, Kiambu county which has been in operation for 15 years now.
Eric Njoka’s father who was a nominated member of parliament insisted that Eric and siblings should work for themselves and not for other people.
Though his dream was to become a journalist, Njoka said he never dreamt of working in a morgue but his dad trained him to become a mortician since the father believed that even if they went to college and got jobs, they had to remember their family business.
The outspoken news anchor revealed why working as a mortician became his hobby apart from doing his journalistic job. He said in an interview with K24, “My dad is the one who trained me to be a mortician.’’
Eric Njoka said that before joining Catholic University of East Africa to pursue a journalism course, his father asked him to assist in running the family business alongside his mother. At the first instance, Njoka says that he was scared to see and watch the bodies being washed and stored in the morgue.
“Seeing the shape in which some of the bodies were in gave me nightmares and left me distraught. But I eventually overcame it. At the end of the day, I had to be at my ‘A’ game and not show the bereaved that I was disgusted or scared of treating their fallen loved ones. Yes, I have another career, but I also like being a mortician because I am doing something extraordinary. Not everyone can do it,” he told the local newspaper in an interview.
Before joining to pursue his media career, his father did not support his passion of wanting to be a journalist asking him to help in family mortuary business a job that earned him Sh2,000 a month in 2003. Njoka held, ‘’My dream was to become a journalist but my dad did not appreciate that career, he never saw any talent in it.”
The news anchor says that he spends most of his weekends and off days in working at the morgue helping wash and store bodies before they are collected by their families doubling up also as a manager.
Mortuary business remains untapped business idea in the country with many referring it as taboo, those practicing being regarded as unclean.
A study by the University of Nairobi indicated that 75 percent of morgues negotiated prices with their customers based on the quality of services offered in the funeral home and the number of years that the mortuary has been in existence.
Human Resource Strategy by the ministry of health 2014-2018 report shows that in 2012, Nairobi recorded 19,832 deaths whereas Central recorded 24,351 total deaths with bodies stored in morgues.
