DC buried after court rules on the site

By Roselyne Obala and Joel Okwayo

A District Commissioner has finally been buried, seven months after she died in a road accident.

Rachuonyo DC Veronica Auma Wambi died in a road accident on Kendu Bay-Katito road, but could not be buried immediately due to a legal tussle over her burial site.

She was buried, Thursday at Ejinja village in Kakamega Central District, according to her will. The will was subject of a court case.

Western PC Simon Kilele and his Nyanza counterpart Francis Mutie led more than 40 DCs and other administrators in an emotional send off.

A sombre mood engulfed the village as the administrators, relatives and friends paid tribute to Wambi.

Mr Kilele asked residents to respect decisions made earlier by their departed kin. Wambi had drafted her will, indicating she preferred to be buried in Kakamega.

Wambi was buried after Kisumu High Court Resident Judge Lady Justice Abida Ali-Aroni ruled that the late administrator be buried in Kakamega, as she wished. She was also to be buried in accordance with Catholic rites.

The judge also relied on video clips produced in court by a freelance journalist William Odero, who covered her thanksgiving party upon appointment as a DC. The late Wambi was captured in the video saying she should like to be buried in Kakamega on her death and not Kamagambo in Nyanza.

The judge also depended on testimonies from Wambi’s friends and associates. She considered Wambi’s house help Caroline Kanila who told the court the late DC had even chosen a site under a tree.

In-laws claim

Wambi’s brother Charles Onyango and her adopted son had moved to court, seeking an injunction barring her in-laws from burying her as decided by a panel of arbitrators who had ruled that she be buried at Kamagambo, Rongo District.

Ms Ali-Aroni decreed that the late Wambi’s father-in-law Samson Anindo did not deserve to bury her in Kamagambo.

The arbitration, which was presided over by Kisumu Town West MP Olago Aluoch, was not satisfied with the court’s verdict, contested and listed Mr Anindo as the defendant.

However, Ms Ali-Aroni said the deceased had been separated from her husband for 12 years.