A Nakuru court on Friday dismissed a suit filed by a woman against a 99-year-old man seeking to have their son buried on a 100-acre farm in Keringet, Nakuru County.
Environment and land court Judge Justice Sila Munyao dismissed the case by Ms Mary Chelagat, saying that the latter had not produced convincing evidence to prove that she was a wife to Mzee Benjamin Chesulut Kibiwott.
The court further ordered that the woman be immediately evicted from the parcel of land where she wanted her 46-year-old son, Wilson Kerich, who died on February 15 in a motorcycle accident to be buried.
Differences emerged in the family over the burial site of the deceased after the father, a former teacher disowned the family, arguing that he was not married to the deceased’s mother and had no relationship with her.
The man, who has five wives, where one is deceased, moved to court through his lawyer Steve Biko Osur and successfully halted the planned burial of the deceased, saying it would desecrate his farm and cause him untold misery and trauma.
He claimed that the late Kerich was not part of his family and that they had no right to bury the body in his land.
However, Ms Chelagat had told the court that she was an honest wife to Mzee Chesulut for nearly 50 years.
She said she had remained faithful during her marriage to Mzee Chesulut, adding that she was his ‘purse’ when he worked as a primary school teacher in Sondu in Nyanza, Kabianga in Kericho and at Ngata before they differed and she returned to her parents.
She expressed shock at the application to halt the burial, saying it was Mzee Chesulut who showed the late Kerich a five-acre parcel of land to build a house, adding that Mzee Chesulut was enraged when Kerich invited her to live with him.
Her efforts to have the court order for a DNA test to prove paternity of their five children never bore fruits after the court rejected her application.