Five children are fighting in court over how to accord their
mother her final rights, including where to hold a funeral mass before she is
buried.
The court battle was instigated by Julia Kemunto, Joyce Kerubo, and Jackson Momanyi against their sibling,s Justus Morara and Judy Kemuma. All the five are children of Milka Moraa Ongubo, who died on September 21.
Julia, Joyce and Jackson have sued Justus and Judy, arguing that the duo has excluded them from their mother’s burial arrangements.
Key on the issues is a demand by the petitioners that their mother’s body be ferried from Umash Funeral Home in Nakuru to Nairobi for a mass service at the Citam church in Karen ahead of burial.
They are also seeking a court order for a post-mortem to be conducted on the body to establish the real cause of death.
The petitioners claim that Justus, who lives in the US, came to Kenya and took away their mother from her home in Langata, Nairobi to an unknown location without their knowledge.
“The removal of our mother was done in a clandestine manner without her clothing or essential medication, raising great concern for her health and well-being,” they petitioners say.
For five weeks, the petitioners say they did not know the whereabouts of their mother and that Justus left her under the care of an unknown person despite her ailing from a condition of advance dementia that required constant care, before returning to the US on September 7.
“On September 21, the first respondent (Justus) broke the news of our mother’s passing through a family WhatsApp group, alleging the cause of death to be cardiac arrest.”
On September 28, Justus and Judy ran an obituary which said their mother would be buried on Friday October 3 after a night vigil at her home in Nyamira county.
However, his siblings moved to court seeking urgent orders to block the planned burial saying they had been excluded.
“Unless restrained, the respondents will proceed with the burial to the exclusion of the plaintiffs, thereby occasioning irreparable harm, family disharmony and indignity to the memory of the deceased,” the petitioners said.
Resident magistrate Festus Terer of the family court in Nairobi issued orders that stopped the burial until the case is determined. The court also barred Umash Funeral Home from releasing Moraa’s body to anyone until the case is determined.
During a hearing of the matter on Tuesday, lawyer Danstan Omari who is representing the petitioners said Julia, Joyce and Jackson want their mother’s body ferried to Nairobi for a funeral service at Citam Church in Karen where she worshipped.
Mama Moraa was a retired nurse who had worked at the Ministry of Defence Memorial Hospital for 32 years. She also served as a chief inspector of police. She was aged 76 at the time of her death.
“My clients want the body ferried to Nairobi for an independent postmortem to be conducted with the inclusion of everybody. After that, we plan to have a mass service for the deceased at Citam Church in Karen because that is the community where she worshipped,” Omari said.
He said the petitioners were ready to meet the costs of ferrying the body from Nakuru to Nairobi.
However, lawyer John Ouma representing Justus and Judy opposed the request to have the body ferried to Nairobi. Instead, Justus and Judy wants their mother’s remains taken straight from Nakuru to Nyamira county for a night vigil at home before she is buried the next day.
“There is no dispute and everybody is allowed to participate in the burial. The defendants don’t see why the body must be brought to Nairobi. All the prayers can be done at her home in Nyamira,” Ouma submitted.
Justus and Judy have described the petition as frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court process, seeking that it be dismissed with costs.
Magistrate Terer will on Wednesday rule on the way forward.
