A High Court in Eldoret has dismissed an application that sought to expunch affidavits filed by the respondents in a case in which a family is seeking orders to be allowed to exhume a body of a teacher they suspect was murdered.
Justice Olga Sewe on Friday allowed the family of the late Veronica Kwamboka Osinde to retain the affidavits in response to an application challenging a decision of the lower court to grant orders to exhume the body.
Lawyer to the applicant Elijah Oginda who is the husband to the deceased, Dennis Magare had on Thursday asked the court to expunge the affidavits filed by a son of the late Kwamboka on claims that it introduced new evidence that was not in the lower court.
However, in her ruling, Lady Justice Sewe allowed the affidavits to be used in the respondents' reply.
Addressing the press after the ruling, lawyer to the family members of Kwamboka, Maurice Kimuli said the affidavits were crucial as they clearly stated why the children of the deceased and the deceased's mother were in support of the request to exhume the body.
“The son gives a very clear picture of what happened on that day and speaks on behalf of the other children and they say that they want the investigations to be undertaken. So today the court has cleared the way, it has refused to expunge from the record those affidavits and other evidence tendred by the family,” said Kimuli.
Eldoret Principal Magistrate Naomi Wairimu had in December 2018 ordered the body of Veronica Kwamboka Osinde to be exhumed after hearing an application filed by the state and a similar one filed by Martha Osinde, the mother to the deceased.
The mother wanted the body exhumed and an autopsy done to ascertain the death especially after the husband allegedly hurriedly buried the wife, excluding the maternal relatives in the ceremony.
The husband, however, moved to the High Court and was granted temporary orders stopping the exhumation.
Hearing for the application on whether the orders will be lifted or extended has now been scheduled for Monday.
“We’re waiting for further confirmation whether there will be a judge on Monday or we go to Tuesday and the key question the court will determine is whether the orders barring the exhumation of the body will continue to subsist as this is an application made by the police who are saying we want to know what killed this woman,” added Kimuli.
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