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Judge Defies Tradition And Makes Landmark Ruling in Burial Rights Case
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- Published on Wednesday, 18 July 2007 03:21
Sitting in Kisii, Commissioner of Assize P.K.K. Birech said he was discarding the customs because they were not static.
"Customs are not static as they must change in conformity with modern trends," he said when he delivered the judgment to end a 52-day legal battle over burial rights.
The row was between two widows of Mr Silvanus Nyaoga Monyoncho who died on December 30, 2002.
Mrs Sabina Kemuma, the first wife, had gone to court to block co-wife Josephine Nyambeki from burying their husband, contending that, as the first wife, she had the sole right.
Mrs Kemuma wanted the court to allow her access to the body for burial at the husband's home at Tinga village of Nyamira district, but not at the Mwongori settlement scheme, where at the time of his death, Mr Monyoncho was living with the second wife.
But Nyambeki argued through her advocate, Nelson Migiro that she had stayed with her husband for about fourty years after they too had a traditional marriage converted into a church re union in 1969.
She said that before he died, Monyoncho had summoned his brothers and a section of his children to make his wish on where he should be buried.
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