ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how burials during the Covid-19 pandemic in Kenya initially were conducted hurriedly and securitized by the state. Securitization of Covid-19 includes presenting it as an existential threat requiring urgent measures and justifying alternative actions outside the usual prescribed procedure. Maseno places sharp focus on the fallout between the state and villagers who wanted to view and give a decent send off to a deceased musician popularly known as “Jachiga.” The chapter gives a feminist reflection on this case in the public domain, where the mother and wife of Jachiga sat on the grave in defiance to a call to exhume the dead, after a hurried and securitized state managed burial in the night. Sitting on the grave is a localized and dramatic her-story that captures the state inadequacies in addressing current Covid-19 burial related stalemates and lessons learned.
