How to write an obituary: a practical guide with examples

An obituary is the public face of a life. It will be read by people who knew your loved one for decades, and by people who have never met them. Both audiences deserve something honest, specific, and easy to read.

This guide is for families writing one for the first time. It covers what to include, the order to put it in, and three short examples you can adapt.

A simple structure

Most obituaries follow a familiar arc:

1. Opening sentence: full name, age (or year of birth), date of passing, and where they passed.
2. Family: parents, spouse, children, grandchildren. The Kenyan tradition of listing extended family is honoured here; foreign readers will understand.
3. Life summary: where they grew up, where they studied, what they did for work, and one or two lines about who they were beyond the resume.
4. Funeral details: date, time, venue. Cortege if applicable.
5. Closing line: a short sentiment or a request (in lieu of flowers, donations to a charity, and so on).

This is a template, not a rule. Some families lead with the life story and end with the family; some skip family entirely on the obituary and save it for the eulogy. Either is fine.

Writing the opening

The first sentence carries weight. Lead with the formal facts; the colour comes later.

Mwangi Kamau, of Nyeri, passed away on 14 April 2026 at the age of 68 at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Nairobi.

That's all the opening needs. Don't bury it under a quote or a verse; readers want to know who and when first.

Listing family

In Kenyan obituaries, this section is often the longest. That's culturally appropriate; the family network is part of how the deceased is remembered. Order it the way the family would naturally introduce themselves:

He is survived by his wife Mary; his children Wanjiru, Kiprop, and Aisha; his ten grandchildren; his brothers John, James, and Peter; his sisters Grace and Esther; and a wide circle of nieces, nephews, and cousins.

If the deceased had a complicated family situation (divorce, blended family, distant siblings), the rule of thumb is: name the people who were present in their life. Omit those they had no relationship with. The obituary is not the place to settle scores.

The life summary

This is where voice matters. A list of dates and titles reads like a CV. Try to land one specific detail that captures the person:

Mwangi spent thirty-one years as a maths teacher at Nyeri High School. Generations of students remember him for the small notebook he kept in his pocket, filled with their names and the day each had finally understood logarithms.

The detail does more than the list. Readers may not remember dates; they will remember the notebook.

Funeral details

Keep these literal: date, time, venue, address. If there's a cortege from the home to the church, say where and when it leaves. If the family prefers private burial after a public service, say so simply ("Burial at Lang'ata Cemetery, family only.").

The closing

Some families end with a verse or a hymn line. Others ask, instead of flowers, for contributions to a chosen charity (the deceased's school, a hospice, a church fund). Either is fine. The shortest closings are the most powerful:

Rest well, Baba.

Three openings to adapt

For an elder:

Mary Atieno Otieno, of Kisumu, passed away peacefully on 28 March 2026 at the age of 89, at her home, surrounded by her family.

For someone younger:

Kiprop Sang, 34, of Eldoret, passed away suddenly on 19 March 2026 in a road accident along the Mau Summit highway.

For someone who lived a quiet life:

Aisha Hassan, 71, of Mombasa, passed away on 3 April 2026 after a short illness. She was a librarian, a mother, and a person who never raised her voice.

Edit your version until it reads, out loud, the way the person actually was. That is the test.