A family in Bungoma County is living in agony after a senior medical officer disowned her late wife moments after she died following long-term illness.
The family has been incurring heavy mortuary bills after the Webuye Sub-County Hospital Superintendent Dr. Patrick Mutoro Wambisi allegedly declined to collect the body of his wife Florence Nasimiyu Chai, three weeks after she died at the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret while undergoing treatment.
The deceased mother Gladys Khakali Chai is now contemplating moving to court to seek orders to compel Dr. Mutoro to collect the body for burial.
"We have no option but to seek legal redress since the late was married under customary law and bride price was given out,” said Mrs. Chai through her lawyer Geoffrey Kisilia Okara in Eldoret town on Thursday.
Dr. Mutoro has however said he is ready for a court battle over the matter noting that he has important reasons why he was not ready to collect the body which he was only ready to disclose it in court.
“I am ready we meet in court and it will decide if it will proceed, in the chambers or publically,” said Mutoro on phone accusing his in-laws of going public over the matter.
According to Mrs. Chai, the late Nasimiyu was married to Dr. Mutoro in 1998 and paid dowry according to Luhya customary laws and wondered why he was not ready to bury the body.
“We fail to understand why our in-law has disowned his wife of 20 years yet they have sired three children,” said Mrs. Chai.
The distressed widow said she spent a lot of money on the medication of her daughter when she was disowned by Dr. Mutoro soon after she fell sick last year.
The family of the deceased is likely to incur extra costs if the body continues to remain in the mortuary due to the raging burial dispute.