The family of Maurice Cardinal Otunga and his Bakhone clan have given the Catholic Church a go-ahead to exhume his body for re-burial.
The process is expected to hasten the elevation of Otunga to sainthood.
In so doing, Otunga's family has broken ranks with members of the highly conservative Dini Ya Msambwa Sect, who are opposed to the move.
When Catholic Arch-Bishop Ndingi Mwana a'Nzeki announced plans to have the body exhumed, the Sect members, owed to use all means possible to block the exhumation, claiming it was likely to bring a curse on the Bukusu.
An elder Wamalwa Manai had been quoted by The Standard as saying Otunga's peace should not be disturbed by a re-burial.
They accused the Bukusu council of elders and area MPs of doing nothing to prevent the abuse of their culture.
However, in an interview with The Standard at his Matega Village home, the younger brother of the Cardinal, 82-year-old Peter Nabangi warned the church to keep off the process of promoting the Cardinal to a saint.
"My brother was a staunch Catholic and family members declared him married to the church. The church should keep off the matter because they are not Catholics or members of the Bakhone clan," said Nabangi.
They should not think that their being Bukusu gives them the mandate to dictate what should be and what should not be done.
Nabangi said the family surrendered him to the Catholic Church in 1944. He says the late Cardinal decided to follow the church after completing his secondary education at Mang'u High School.
"Although Bukusus usually transfer the spirits of their departed back to the ancestral land, we as a family have no such plans for our brother," says Nabangi who is a retired sub-chief for Matega sub-location.
He says the respect they had for the late cardinal cannot allow them to invoke Bukusu traditions after his death since he did not follow the traditions during his lifetime.