They say kazi ni kazi as long as you put bread on the table and we all agree to that. For the longest time, men have been believed to be the only ones who work in odd professions like mortuary attendants but nowadays, that’s not the case. Women are taking on jobs which were previously meant for men.
Well, Anne Wanjiku is among the few women who work as morticians and she is proud of her job. She uses the trendy social media platform TikTok to show her followers what happens behind closed doors in a morgue.
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Speaking in an interview with NTV, Wanjiku passionately talked about her job, stigma and challenges.
‘When the body is off the fridge, it’s either for the preparation of viewing or it’s supposed to be prepared for dispatch. Once the body is lodged then first thing you do is to set the temperature. so it is automated. the censors can tell the amount of temperature to go down or up depending on your body fat because the essence of the refrigerator is for preserving the skin and fat. So if you’re slender it goes up and if you’re big or your body fat is a lot, it goes down,’ she explained.
The Nyahururu based mortician explained how the bodies are cleaned from the first time they’re brought to the morgue until it is ready for burial.
Morgue attendants believed to be untidy people, use drugs and struggle with mental illness but according to Wanjiku, that’s not true.
‘My family has been very supportive but at first, when I told my uncle I wanted to become a mortician, he was shocked and very hesitant. He didn’t know how to respond given the image that has been painted about those who work in this industry isn’t good and probably he thought that I would be oriented into the same,’ she said.
Preparation for dispatch
‘During preparation for dispatch, makeup is advised. But first, we ask for the family’s consent so as to know how the person used to be in real life.’
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