Deadbeat father loses court case to bury daughter killed by lioness

Elizabeth Mawiya, mother the mother of a 13 year old girl who was mauled by a lioness in Kajiado holds a her daughters portrait at their home in Twala village yesterday.Controversy is raging between her and the biology father over burial plans. [Peterson Githaiga] A 13-year-old girl mauled by a lioness two weeks ago in Kajiado will be buried by her mother, the court has ruled. A Nairobi court rejected a bid by her biological father to lay her to rest. Kenneth Kipkemei Kigen had filed a petition at the Milimani Commercial court in Nairobi, seeking a node to bury her daughter at their rural home in Nandi County. However, Elizabeth Mawia, mother to the deceased, had maintained that her daughter should be buried at their rural home in Kakeyani village Kitui South sub-county, arguing that she had brought up all her three children single-handedly. ''I therefore allow Elizabeth Mawia the mother to the child to bury her daughter Peace Mwende at her father's property in Kitui. The father can also be allowed to attend the burial and to participate in the funeral arrangements,'' ruled magistrate Mwangi. For the last two weeks, there has been push and pull between the mother and an estranged biological father over where she should be buried. Peace Mwende, a grade seven learner at Oloosirikon Primary School, was mauled by a lioness in a private ranch servant's quarter in Tuala, Emakoko Sub location where she had visited her father. The father works on an expansive ranch bordering Nairobi National Park. After filling out the petition, the court halted the burial plans that were slated for Thursday last week pending the hearing. In the petition, the father had claimed that according to the Keiyo customs to which he belongs, a child born out of wedlock is given a family name and if they die, without the mother being married to the father they have to bury them. ''According to our culture a child is considered to belong to his father and it does not matter whether parents were married or not," argued Kigen. However, the court was told that the father took off immediately after the mother got pregnant and he only resurfaced last year when the deceased child asked to meet her father and she was introduced to her. In the community, you can never be entitled as a husband to a woman before you pay a dowry to the family. Nzambu Katumbi brother to Mwende's mother said that Mr Kigen never paid a penny. Making a ruling, Magistrate Agnes Mwangi, said the aspect in the dispute was that the law only recognizes the persons who are closest to the deceased to have the right to bury the deceased. ''From the evidence, the mother is more entitled to bury the deceased considering that she is the one who raised her most of her life and this is after noting that the father only got involved with the child recently,'' read part of the ruling. ''The law also says that any African child who during his or her lifetime had not established a home of his or her own, or contracted a law for marriage upon his or her death, her estate shall be administered according to the customs and culture to which she belongs by virtual of birth," the court ruled. It added: "...and therefore, in this case, the deceased died at the age of 13 years old and had not established a home of her own and her parents having not been married subscribes to a different culture being Keiyo and Kamba, and under the constitution the court cannot favour one culture over the other."

Deadbeat father loses court case to bury daughter killed by lioness

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