Homeless Kenyan Fundraising Falls Short of Target, Pastors Convene Emergency Meeting

An emergency meeting convened at the Community Christian Fellowship church (CCF) in Lowell by Kenyan pastors to plan for a second fund raising effort for the burial of a homeless Kenyan who died recently. From left to right are; Leah Mburu, the wife of the late Mburu, Rev. Dr. Mumbui Karimi of the PCEA Ushindi church, Bishop David Karaya of the CCF church, Stephen Njuguna, chairman of the Kenya Christians Welfare Association, Dr. Rev. Retired Major James Githetu, Job Ngige, a family friend from Lynn and Douglas Mbatia, a nephew of the deceased . H.Maina/Ajabu

by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News

LOWELL. Mass. , AUGUST 25_ A  fund raising effort  to raise  funds for the burial of the late Elam Mburu, a homeless Kenyan who drowned  in the Charles River in Boston over three weeks ago, failed to meet  the minimum funds required to bury the Kenyan  either in his home country or in a cemetery in Boston.

Consequently, concerned Kenyan pastors from Kenyan community churches convened an urgent meeting today, and planned a second, urgent fund raising that will  take place at the PCEA Ushindi church this coming Sunday at 3pm.

During the same Sunday, another fund raising will take place in Worcester and Wakefield, Ma, for another young Kenyan man who was a former resident of Boston, and who passed away in Canada last week after a sudden illness.

  The meeting, convened by Rev. Dr. Mumbui Karimi, pastor of the PCEA Ushindi church, brought together several pastors, community leaders and the wife of the late Mburu who has been separated from her husband for the last 25 years, and his nephew Douglas Mbatia and AjabuAfrica.com, the main Kenyan community online news media in the USA.

  During the meeting, Dr. Karimi told the committee that while attending a CD launching ceremony last Sunday at the Ushindi church, several members of the Kenyan community expressed concerns at reports that burial plans for the dead Kenyan did not seem to meet the needed funds.

  Therefore the pastors, who were present at the Cd launch, including Dr. Karimi, Rev. Samuel Kimohu of the saint Stephens church, Bishop David Karaya of the CCF church, who is also the chairman of the Kenya pastors fellowship Association (KPF), and Rev. Dr. Charles Karanja of the PEFA church in Malden, and the Secretary of the KPF, immediately retreated into church office for urgent deliberations.

The  after their discussions, the  pastors decided to get the ball rolling by setting up a meeting with the known family members of the late Mburu to evaluate and decide on the direction that the burial plans should take. 

 The meeting, that took place today, was also attended by Dr. Rev. Retired Major James Githetu, Stephen Njuguna, the chairman of the Kenya Christian Welfare Association and Job Ngige, a friend of the family from Lynn also attended.

 During the meeting, the family of the late Mburu informed the pastors that the funds drive that took place last Saturday at Mbatia’s apartment on 39 Katherine Street in Lawrence managed to raise only $1100. Another $400 was raised at one meeting held last week at Joseph Kamaru’s house. Kamaru was the first Kenyan informed by authorities of the late Mburu’s untimely death. 

  “Despite these good efforts, the $1,500 raised is clearly not enough, considering that there are other expenses that come with a situation like this”, Bishop Karaya told the committee.

 Based on the new developments, the family of the late Mburu has decided aganist repatriating the body back to Kenya, and planned to have a funeral take place at the Mt. Hope cemetery in Mattapan sometimes next week.

 “We have all agreed to hold the funeral here due to the lack of sufficient funds”, said Mrs. Leah Mburu, the wife of the deceased who traveled form Seattle, Washington last week  to help with the funeral arrangements.

Leah Mburu, requests help for burial of husband

As a result, the committee decided that it would be in the best interests of the family and the Kenyan community to have an emergency fund raising this Sunday at the Ushindi church in Lowell, hoping to get enough funds for the burial at a public cemetery in Boston.
 
  They agreed that no further delays are needed to get the body buried as it has been lying at the medical examiners venue in Boston for the last three weeks.

“We are appealing to the Kenyan community to come together and help us dispose this body by next week in order to maintain our pride as one people. We understand that there are so many other things that call for fund raisings going on in the community especially this coming weekend, but this is also one of our very urgent problems to solve”, pleaded pastor Karimi.

“I am glad that the medical examiner has given us an extra 10 more days to come up with arrangements to have the body buried by next week”, said Douglas Mbatia, Mburu’s nephew in whose house the fundraising took place.

 Mbatia, who has been working tirelessly trying to get more information of his dead uncle with an intention to make sure that his body does not get disposed of by the local council, said that since he was informed of the death the previous week, he has been shuttling between his job, the state police offices in Boston who have been conducting investigations into the death, the medical examiner’s office and the Mass general hospital to get details of what was going on.

 He said that he has occasionally met his uncle who immigrated to the US 25 years ago here in Boston and was determined to do anything to afford him a decent burial.

  “When I came to America in, I searched for my uncle and found him. He used to visit me occasionally at my job in downtown Boston and could help him out whenever I could, before I relocated to Lawrence”, said the devastated father of one.

 Mbatia said that for unknown reasons, his uncle prefered on living in his van, despite efforts by his brother, (Mbatia’s dad) and his other family members to request him to move back to Kenya.

  “My father used to come a lot and have meetings with my uncle, urging him to relocate back to Kenya where he would support him get a better living situation”. Mbatia told Ajabu Africa News.

 “However, for some unknown reasons, my uncle did not want to go back".

Mbatia's father, is expected to fly into Boston next week for the burial.

 In retrospect, however, Mbatia conceded that he should have initially contacted a Kenyan church for guidance with the fundraising and burial plans.

 “I have learnt from my misteps. ”, Mbatia told AjabuAfrica.com

Douglas Mbatia; working tirelessly for his uncle's burial

.   He added he was introduced to pastor Karimi of the Ushindi church by a family friend, Job Ngige, who lives in Lynn.

 “I thank pastor Karimi ,all the other pastors who have agreed to help us deal with this situation and the friends who reponded by contributing the initial $1,500 ”. “I now feel better”, he declared.

 Mbatia also thanked the medical examiner in Boston, the state police , the staff at Mass General Hospital and the Funeral home director for being very helpful to him as he struggled to piece together what he needed to do to  know where the body of his uncle was, and how to get it buried.

 “They have all been very, very helpful. I can’t thank them enough”, said Mbatia.

The late Mburu is the second homeless Kenyan to pass away in the Boston area recently. In May this year, the body of a 28 year old Kenyan homeless man was pulled from a canal in the city of Lowell in what was described as a mysterious death.

A fundraising effort by the Kenyan community held at the Saint Stephens church in Lowell raised about $20,000, which was used to repartriate the body of the man back to the motherland. Sources indicate that there are numerous Kenyans citizens who are homeless in Massachusetts and other states while a solution to help them has not yet been formulated.
 
 “Let us come and help this family as one people as we continue to look for an urgent solution to this re-occurring problems in our community”, said Stephen Njuguna, chairman of the Kenya Christian Welfare Association.

  Njuguna said that it is very important to the community that we show unity at this moment of serious need”, he added.

 The urgent funds drive will   start promptly at 3pm at the Ushindi church located at 452 Chelmsford Street, Lowell, Massachusetts.  

  Kenyans are requested to avail themselves in the true Kenyan spirit of togetherness for the sake of a fallen brother.

Read the original story here

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