Twin brothers exchange blows over inheritance of parents’ house

By NICHOLAS CHERUIYOT

Narok, Kenya: Twin brothers from Soget village, Transmara in Narok County surprised their village mates when they exchanged heavy blows over inheritance of their late parents’ house. Over the years the two have been role models in the locality on good brotherhood.

Their parents had built a semi-permanent house while the twins, being their only sons had mud-walled houses.

Unfortunately, their ageing parents succumbed to age-related illnesses almost at the same time few months ago.

Since writing a will is still unheard of among the locals, the living usually give varying accounts of the dead’s wishes. It was no surprise when the twins father (normally the owner of the estate) passed on without letting anyone know of his last decrees on succession.

After mourning their father for sometime the two men started sharing property. Sharing land was easy as it was halved, with each brother taking a half.

“Though disquiet emerged on who should get  the fertile or barren side of the parcel of land, it was not a big issue,” a villager intimated to this writer.

 True to the adage that it is small issues that soil a big man’s reputation, the two brothers laid claim to their parent’s old brick house. The fight turned nasty and local elders were involved but no Solomonic ruling was arrived at. The local tradition dictates that the last-born takes up such property but the same tradition is mum on what happens when there are only twin brothers.

Before long push came to shove.  One of the twins mobilised his family to move to the brick house to enjoy the modern structure while his twin brother was busy at Kericho where he works as a tea picker.

It is said that his wife called him chiding him on why he had let his brother rob him of his ‘ancestral’ right.

He made a quick dash to the village having stirred and also mobilised his family into a revenge mission of evicting the new occupants from the disputed house.

They caught the brother’s family unawares and they watched in disbelief as their belongings mainly utensils flew out through any opening in the house.

In an attempt not top be belittled before their families,  the brothers landed on each other with heavy blows outside the house as children rallied behind  their respective bread winners.

Men from the village took their sweet time before coming to end the scuffle on ideal family kinship.

“Village elders have kicked them out of the house into their humble abode and no talk is allowed on it until enmity between the duo cools,” one of the elders reports.