Meet the 'mourners-for-hire' in Kisumu who guaranteee a dignified send-off

Professional 'mourners-for-hire' are helping families honour their loved ones in Kisumu, offering traditional, expressive displays of grief to support a dignified farewell for a modest cost.

Footage filmed on Sunday shows mourners carrying twigs, wailing around coffins, dancing to church drums, and taking part in burial rituals rooted in the customs of the Luo community of western Kenya.

Traditionally, funerals would span several days, bringing families and neighbours together in collective remembrance and cultural continuity - but with families now smaller and often dispersed around the country and the world, paid mourners are becoming much more sought-after.

"There are a lot of deaths, and we mourn for hire. Mostly, a lot of young and old alike have died, so people are used to death," said Felix Ochieng' Okumu, a member of a professional mourners group.

"When one dies these days, people just stare; it does not concern them, but in our culture, when someone dies, we have to mourn to give a peaceful send-off to the dead because that is their last day with us," Okumu added.

'Mourners-for-hire' groups often take part in funeral processions, helping dig graves, joining night vigils and supporting families through the emotional and logistical demands of burial rituals.

For Millicent Atieno, a mother who joined the profession to make a living, personal knowledge of the deceased is not required.

"It is not a must that we know the people we mourn, it is a job we just feign it and make it real and make the people feel our mourning and wailing," Atieno noted.

"Families are now isolated. [...] For us, we were here mourning our dead alone in this until the last minute, that is when we saw other distant relatives come. So, we hired these youths," added Jacklyne Atieno, who hired the group for her brother-in-law's funeral.

Kenya is not alone in this shift. Across sub-Saharan Africa, the professionalisation of mourning has created work opportunities for young people while also helping sustain long-standing communal rituals of farewell.

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