Most meetings convened by the opposition or people perceived to be anti-establishment have ended up being disrupted. Others have been violently broken up by security agents, despite being licensed by the very same agents. A case in point is the last meeting that the Muungano wa Mageuzi group tried to hold in Eldoret town recently. Now, with political meetings being broken up and cancelled on flimsy grounds, the only option for politicians is funerals, where the licence can neither be cancelled nor denied. Indeed, some pro-change activists say that although they fear attending meetings organised by opposition activists for security reasons, they do not mind attending funerals where such activists are scheduled as speakers.
Many politicians find an appropriate forum in funerals because the attendance is always good.
Most of these people would not, in normal circumstances, attend political rallies, noe lend an ear to the fiery politicians. An example of this is the funeral service in Nairobi of the late Member of Parliament for Mugirango South, Mr. Enock Magara, where the Nairobi Central Seventh Day Adventist Church committee and leading politicians from Gusiiland differed over the programme and the speakers to be included. At the funeral ceremony in Kisii, Cabinet minister Sam Ongeri was injured on arrival, while other pro-Kanu MPs were publicly humiliated. At the service to view the body, politicians and Kanu activists expressed their desire to see the minister's inherit the seat, something his wife outrightly rejected. What all these incidents show is that funerals will continue being fertile grounds for politics as long as all are not given a fair chance to hold normal meetings and sell their ideas.