AGEWA MAGUTBy AGEWA MAGUT
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Some burial disputes have kept the nation guessing and have at times divided clans, tribes, and families. Others have been bizarre and have involved famous personalities.
Here is a look at some major burial disputes in Kenya:
Silvano Melea (SM) Otieno
Among the most famous of the disputes in the Kenyan courts is that of SM Otieno, the husband of late business woman Virginia Wambui Otieno. When he passed away due to a heart attack on December 20, 1986, that was the beginning of a long dispute between his widow and his relatives.
The relatives of the deceased wanted the body of the city lawyer interred at their rural Nyamira Village, Siaya County home, whereas his widow, Wambui wanted him buried at the home in Ngong. The matter escalated and the widow took the family, represented by Joash Ochieng Ougo and Omolo Siranga, to court.
On February 13, 1987, Justice SEO Bosire ruled in favour of the family, saying that the deceased would be buried according to Luo traditions and customs and ordered the body to be released to the members that would meet the cost of transport and the burial.
Samuel Njoroge Muiruri
The case of Ruth Wanjiru versus Jemimah Njeri and another pitted a second wife by customary marriage against a legally wedded first wife. The first wife of the former councillor, Ms Njeri, wanted to have her husband interred at a plot of land in Muguga, Kiambu county. The second wife, Ruth Wanjiru, said that her husband had wished to be buried at their home in Kitengela.
Ms Wanjiru had gone to court to seek orders seeking orders to bar her co wife and other family members from moving the late Njoroge’s body from the mortuary or burying it. She claimed that the first wife, who was estranged had ejected her husband form their home, along with his brothers, hence forcing him to severe ties with his family and start afresh.
Justice A Mshila however sided with Ms Njeri and ruled in her favour as she was the legally recognized wife.
Ambrose Kipkoech Kurgat
When Ambrose Kipkoech Kurgat died in 2012, his family, comprising of his step mother , brothers and other relatives, began holding meetings and making decisions about his final send off. They did not involve his wife Lucy Kemboi, or his children. They only informed them of their decisions.
The widow took the matter to court, as she wanted involvement in the plans to bury her husband as well as the right to choose where his grave would be. She refused to have him interred on the family burial site where her late father n law and sisters in law had been buried and opted to have her husband buried in their own homestead.
The court found that Ms Kemboi had an equal right as her in laws to plan and bury her husband and should be involved in the decision making for his send off. However, it was ruled that the body would be interred on the family graveyard, as the site Ms Kemboi had identified would interfere with land succession of the other relatives.
JMK and G M versus DMK
The case revolved a man who wanted to bury his wife. The two had had a customary marriage and lived together for two years before formalizing their union. In 2002, they separated, living apart for seven years before the wife filed for divorce. The divorce was finalised in 2011 and the marriage ended.
In 2012, after the wife died, the husband filed a case in court with the intention to bury her, as he claimed she was still his wife. The argument was that, even though a divorce had taken place to end the formal marriage, the customary marriage was still in effect as the rights to dissolve it had not been undertaken. A lower court sided with the husband, but an appeal by the woman’s family overturned the decision.
Judge S.N. Mutuku ruled that the customary marriage had changed to a statutory marriage and hence, the divorce was binding. The body was released to the children of the deceased for burial.