Co-wives dispute over husband's grave yard

Rida Nechesa and Elizabeth Metah sued their co-wife and her son in a dispute on where to bury their husband. [File, Standard]

Two women have sued their co-wife and her son in a dispute on where to bury their husband. 

Under a Certificate of Urgency, Rida Nechesa and Elizabeth Metah argue that failure to bury their husband in the land he had ordered would lead to a curse.

The two have sued their co-wife, Pricilla Khavakali and her son, Moses Andaje, who they said had already obtained burial permits to bury Joash Emichende Mukunga.

They want the court to issue an injunction barring Ms Khavakali and Mr Andaje both by themselves, their agents, personal representatives or employees, from removing the body of Mukunga from the mortuary until the matter is heard and determined.

The family met on July 28, two days after the death of Mr Mukunga, where the defendants maintained they had the rights to bury him on any land.

In the meeting, the plaintiffs proposed that Mukunga be buried on his ancestral land which is in his name, but the defendants insisted he must be buried on a different land.

According to Nechesa, Andaje moved to obtain crucial burial documents in readiness to effect the burial on a land that Mukunga did not want to be buried in.

The plaintiff insist that they stand to be haunted by Mukunga's spirits if they failed to bury him in the land he had ordered the family to inter him.

“We, as Luhya community observe our traditions and we ensure we abide by the demands of the dead. In cases where the people fail to abide by these demands, bad luck normally visits the living as evil spirits are known to return to haunt siblings,” Nechesa avers.

Nechesa further avers that before he died, Mukunga had differences with her co-wive.