When I was in primary school, one of our Kiswahili teachers brought up an interesting question. When a person dies, should we refer to them/their body as a person or an object?
The debate was heated, and if I remember correctly, we might have agreed to disagreed. If I remember correctly again, I might have been in the 'it' camp.
I do not know what agenda the man was trying to push, and I think most of us went home with the impression permanently fixed in our heads that our bodies are containers for the 'soul' - like a calabash of busaa or a packet of unga. Whatever it was, the impression was powerful.
After years of thinking about the topic, I have taken a stance. I am going with maiti a- for the following reasons:
One, my bible tells me we are made more like smartphones than like containers of milk in the sense that, once manufactured, a smartphone has everything it needs built or programmed in, with its final requirement being a power source. So God made us complete humans, and only gives us His life force which makes us living beings. As a result, when He takes it away, we die, and at this point do not care what happens to us because we are no longer able to interact with the universe in any way.
Being there, we are still human. Rotting, yes. Human, yes. Once we rot completely, living humans cannot say this pile of dust was Gianluigi or Ramogi, which is what it is.
We will still say maiti i- because we are Kenyan and do not give a shit about grammar.
If you see 'luigi' talking to you, that is a demon trying to get to you.
A Very Important Disclaimer To You Smartphone Flashing Nerds: I am not saying that the person is flashable. Interestingly, you can sideload spirits to run alongside the person. These spirits are either demons or God's Spirit. While demons do not ask for consent to take total control of the person in question, God's Spirit leads you with your consent.