The burial of a former powerful Provincial Commissioner went on as planned despite a looming family dispute.
Mzee Isaiah Cheluget, the father of Ambassador Nancy Kirui, was served with court orders delaying the burial for two weeks pending the hearing and determination of a case, but the family insisted it had to continue.
Mzee Cheluget, one of the seven provincial commissioners founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta personally handpicked to help run the country, recently died at the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu and shortly, a man claiming to be his son emerged demanding recognition.
The younger brother of the 87-year-old former Nyanza Provincial Commissioner, also sought court orders regarding his part of inheritance on the family land.
Moses Kipkurui Cheluget, an accountant and businessman in Bomet County, claims that, “When my mother, Jane Cherono, was in Form Three in 1983, she met and had an affair with the old man which resulted in my conception. Mzee Cheluget acknowledged that I was his child and on several occasions, hosted me in his Litein home.
Kipkurui claims he spoke with the old man before his death about, among other issues, his inheritance of part of Cheluget’s estate, comprising prime properties in South Rift, huge parcels of land, shares, a petrol station and a restaurant in Kericho town.
Kipkurui also claims that Mzee Cheluget had no qualms with him being recognised by his family and being part of his burial preparations which were halted through a court order obtained by Mzee Cheluget’s younger brother, Wcyliffe Kitur Cheluget, over a family land dispute.
On June 30, Kitur moved to the Lands and Environmental Court under a certificate of urgency seeking the court’s intervention to stop Cheluget’s widow Rael Cheluget, from burying the former PC in a disputed parcel of land pending hearing and determination of the suit. Lady Justice Jane Onyango granted the orders.
In a sworn affidavit by his lawyer, Erick Nyadimo, Kitur told the court that the deceased had allegedly “forcefully” built his house on his part of the land they had been allocated by their late father, David Cheluget Misoi.
If he was interred there, the burial was likely to “deprive the applicant his lawful use and ownership of the piece of land,” said Nyadimo, adding that Mzee Cheluget tried to meddle with the estate where the plaintiff had gone ahead and put restrictions on the parcel of land on October 22, 1999.
The application was fixed for hearing within the next 14 days. The family was mum regarding the fate of Kipkurui, and as for his younger brother, the burial went on as planned on Wednesday, July, 5 after senior members of Cheluget’s Kapecherek clan including secretary Daniel Chumo and clan lawyer and family member David Mutai, denied knowledge of the court orders stopping the burial, arguing that “contrary to press statements, the family is not aware of the court case.”
Mzee Cheluget was buried on his Kusumek home after an overnight stay at his house according to Kalenjin customs.
Nyadimo, Kitur’s lawyer, threatened to move to court seeking contempt of court orders against Rael Cheluget as “our efforts to serve the respondent were frustrated and that is why we had to resolve to buying an advertisement in a newspaper with a wide circulation. The family’s actions betrayed the frustrations that our client suffered from 1999 when he went to court to place a caveat on the family land.”
Nyadimo pointed out that Rael risks a Sh1 million fine for contempt of court and that the court may order exhumation of her late husband.
Mzee Cheluget was a pioneer PC, a meticulous administrator who feared no controversies. In his monumental tome, Kenya: A History Since Independence, British historian Charles Hornsby, describes Cheluget’s group of administrators as “powerful, intelligent and able officers who effectively ran the country in the interest of Mzee Kenyatta and sometimes for themselves and eventually for the independent Kenya.”
“They disliked local politicians whom they described as competitors and made no pretence of democracy,” wrote Hornsby, adding that the late Cheluget was a no-nonsense PC who often shouted down government officers and bullied those whom he thought were wrong. He has 21 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
