A man in Lurambi is accusing his father-in-law of stealing his wife's body and burying it without his consent after her death at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.
Boaz Navuke Sidiga has petitioned in court to have the body exhumed and be given to him for burial, saying that the father-in-law deprived him of the right to bury his rightful wife.
Navuke is also accusing his father-in-law Nathan Mulima Ombayo of excluding him from the burial arrangements of his late wife Rebecca Awinja Eshitemi, with whom he claims they had three children.
"The defendant, without a right, consent or consultation with the plaintiff, secretly buried the deceased at his home.
"The plaintiff already has a matrimonial home where, under Luhya customs, had both the legal and traditional rights to inter his deceased wife,” reads suit papers at a Kakamega court, as was seen by the Monday Standard.
He wants the body preserved at the Kakamega County General Hospital morgue pending the new burial, claiming that he married her legally and paid her dowry.
He says that the body should be buried at his home, according to Luhya customs.
The case will be mentioned on May 10 after the magistrate handling the case maintained that the defendant must be availed to give his side of the story.