Court orders mediation in woman's burial row

An open grave in a burial dispute. [File, Standard]

The High Court in Eldoret has ordered that a dispute over the final resting place of a 65-year-old woman who died six months ago should be subjected to mediation.

Justice Reuben Nyakundi ordered the matter to be taken up by the Kalenjin Council of Elders commonly referred to as Myoot in order to seek an out-of-court settlement.

Justice Nyakundi who has been championing settling disputes through the Alternative Justice System (AJS) said that the court had decided to seek the indulgence of the council of elders through former Myoot Council of Elders' Chairman, Major (Rtd) John Seii who accepted to preside over the mediation.

He said that the elders will determine where the deceased Catherine Jerotich Kosgei who was disowned by her supposed co-wife Salina Cheruto Kendagor will be buried.

Jerotich and Cheruto are said to be widows of late Kenya Defense Officer (KDF) officer Barnabas Kipkosgei Kendagor who died on October 16, 2005.

The mediation report is expected to be tabled in court on August 27 for further directions.

"This matter will be settled best through AJS. I ask the families to settle their differences and solve this matter before the elders who understand best the Kalenjin culture and traditions. Mediation will serve justice to this family and foster good relations," Nyakundi said.

Earlier, Cheruto had disowned Jerotich saying that she was her husband's girlfriend and not her co-wife.

She obtained a court order stopping the burial which had been scheduled for March 27. Jerotich's body has been lying in the morgue since then.

Cheruto who is the administrator of Kendagor's estate told the court that Jerotich was a stranger to her.

She said that she would not bury a woman that she did not know at her farm in Moiben, Uasin Gishu County. The farm is part of the estate of the late Kendagor.

"I do not know the deceased. I do not know her at all. I am the only widow of the late Kendagor. My husband never married any other woman," Cheruto held.

When asked her opinion about where the deceased should be buried, she suggested that she should be buried at her parents' home in Kondabilet.

"Since the deceased was not married, her people should be the ones to bury her. She should be buried by her relatives," she said.

But John Chesang, Kendagor's stepfather claimed that Jerotich was married to the late military officer as his first wife.

Chesang pointed out that since Jerotich's firstborn Stanley Kiplagat was buried on the disputed land without any objection from his stepmother, Jerotich should also be buried next to her son.

"We seek to have the remains of the late Catherine Jerotich at her rightful home as she was the rightful first wife to the deceased Barnabas Kipkosgei Kendagor," he stated in his court papers.