Second wife stops burial of ex-CBK senior staffer

The burial of a senior CBK officer has been stopped after his second wife sued her co-wife.

Christopher Namachanja was the assistant director at the Kenya School of Monetary Studies.

Senior principal magistrate Grace Mmasi on March 20 gave the order stopping Namachanja's burial at his Nakuru home pending the determination of the case.

The second wife, Daisy, has sued the first wife, Lucy, and the Central Bank of Kenya for not including her in the burial arrangements.

Namachanja died of a heart attack on March 14 and was to be buried on March 28 at his Nakuru home.

However, Daisy wants her late husband buried at his ancestral home in Bungoma.

“His rural and ancestral home is in Bungoma but Lucy is keen on ensuring that he is buried in Nakuru so that I don’t get access to the gravesite of my deceased husband and father to our children,” Daisy claims.

Through lawyer Dastan Omari, Daisy says she was married to Namachanja and they had three children.

She argues that Lucy has declined to give her and her children an opportunity to participate in the funeral arrangements and burial.

Daisy says Lucy has demonstrated that she cannot be trusted with the planning of the funeral and burial of their husband.

“Lucy has willfully refused to recognise Daisy as the legal wife of the deceased and as such, she cannot be included in the burial plans and benefit from payments from CBK after several unfruitful attempts,” the petition reads. 

She argues that Lucy and CBK have made concerted efforts to lock her and the children out of the funeral arrangements and the actual burial.

Daisy says her co-wife has always acknowledged that she is the second wife and she had children with Namachanja.

“I have always supported the deceased at the time of his illness and I was even his representative at the time of his admission where CBK was the guarantor,” she claims.

Daisy says that in 2018 Namachanja went to her parents’ home in Kisii and paid her dowry. She has attached her children’s birth certificates bearing the name of the deceased.

In response, Lucy has denied Daisy’s claims and called her a stranger.

“I have no reason to involve strangers in my late husband’s funeral arrangements and she should be held responsible for the resulting costs accumulating at Lee Funeral Home,” Lucy says.

She says it is indeed obvious that Daisy’s intention is financial gain.

Lucy wants DNA tests carried out to ascertain the paternity of Daisy’s children, saying they were not fathered by her husband.

The case will be mentioned on Thursday for inter-parties hearing.