Tujoromajo Kasuto
The late Professor, Mburumba Kerina, who passed away on 14 June, will be laid to rest at the Heroes and Heroines Cemetery in Okahandja, Otjozondjupa Region this Sunday, 4 July.
According to a statement on Thursday by the office of the Executive Director of the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT), the memorial service will be held on Saturday, 3 July at Parliament Gardens in Windhoek. The memorial and burial ceremonies will be broadcasted live on the MICT official Facebook pages.
The statement also reiterates that, “the State Funeral of the Late Professor Mburumba Kerina will be conducted under strict compliance with the PUBLIC HEALTH COVID-19 GENERAL REGULATIONS on Public Gatherings which limits gatherings to 10 persons per event excluding children and remaining spouse.”
Professor Kerina, who named Namibia, is 89 born on 6 June, 1932, in Tsumeb in the then South West Africa. He was born as Eric William Getzen and changed his name after finding out where it originated from. “I was given that name by missionaries when my rights as a baby were not recognised. But when I became politically conscious, I divorced that name and became known as Mburumba,” stated Kerina in 2014 in an interview with local media houses.
In addition, he held a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Political Science from the Pandjaran State University in Bandung, Indonesia (1960-1962). Kerina was known as an academic, a liberation struggle pioneer, politician, and author, one of the people who established the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo), and the Federal Convention of Namibia (FCN).
He was a member of Namibia’s Constituent Assembly as well as of the National Assembly and the National Council.
He resigned from politics in 1990 only to return 8 years later as councilor for the Aminuis Constituency for the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), now known as Popular Democratic Movement (PDM). In 2003 he left the DTA and in 2009 he returned to SWAPO after 48 years since his expulsion from the party.
His first wife was Evelhardine Kapuuo-Kerina who passed at the age of 80 in 2015 and two years later on 5 May, 2017, he married Naomi Kikii Zauana. She unfortunately died only one month later on 5 June 2017 at the age of 54.
