Remains of Samuel Meano Kale, longest-serving Section President of the Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), have been laid to rest in Buea.
Meano Kale served as the CPDM Section President for the United Kingdom from July 1996 until his death on July 28.
To honour a man described as having given his all to the ruling party, a CPDM Central Committee Delegation was dispatched to the funeral on the instructions of Chairman, President Paul Biya.
The delegation was headed by Joseph Dion Ngute, deputy Secretary for Economic, Social and Employment Affairs at the CPDM Central Committee. Also included in the delegation were Senator Nfor Tabetando, Senator Charles Mbella Moki, Humphrey Ekema Monono and Andrew Motanga Monjimba.
Addressing the gathering, Dion Ngute regretted that the UK Section of the CPDM has been hit hard by the demise of Meano Kale, a man he described as “a perfect supporter and believer of the ideals of the CPDM.”
“He was one of the longest-serving Section Presidents of the CPDM…he had a constant and remarkable presence in all the congresses of the party…he had respect for militants, was a highly serviceable and generous militant…the CPDM party has lost an asset,” Ngute said during the funeral service at Presbyterian Church Buea Town.
Mbella Moki in a eulogy said it was a difficult thing to “bid good night to a gracious human, a historic figure.”
Meano Kale was raised posthumously to the rank of Officer of the National Order of Valour. His casket was decorated on behalf of the state of Cameroon by Zang III, Senior Divisional Officer for Fako.
The Rev. Nyansako-ni-Nku, Moderator Emeritus of the Presbyterian Church in Cameroon (PCC) drew inspiration from I Thessalonians 5:2 to comfort the family of the deceased.
In his homily, the retired PCC Moderator said the death of Meano Kale left him dump and surprised, questioning why death often takes the finest grains. His words: “Jesus lives, and because he lives, we can face tomorrow even in pain. God knows all about our pain. Meano Kale was a brilliant and meticulous lawyer.
Concern yourself this day with not when you shall die, but how you shall live. Everyman is an appeal to the dimension of infinity.” Though Rev. Nku said there’s the constant tension between happiness and sorrow, life cannot lead us where God’s grace cannot cover us.
Prof. Ndiva Kofele Kale, Head of the Kale Family in an emotion-packed eulogy described death as a difficult passage in human life.
Meano Kale was born on August 3, 1962 in Bamenda. He did his primary education in Buea, before enrolling into PSS Kumba (now PHS Kumba) and later moved to England.
He read law at John Moore’s University in Liverpool and was later called to the Bar of England and Whales in 1986. He was recruited at the Bank of Scotland, where he worked until death. He became head of the litigations department in 2009 and died with 27 years of litigation experience. Meano Kale leaves behind his wife, Jannet Kokovi and children to mourn him.
