The family of an Administration Police officer on Wednesday traveled from Meru to Kitui to collect the body of the AP’s son for burial only to find it had been collected by the family of his wife.
The policeman identified only as Stano attached to Matinyani AP camp arrived at the Kitui Level 4 Hospital mortuary in accompany of his wife, his mother and father and other relatives at 9am and found the body of his son Denis missing.
Denis, a pre-school pupil, was crushed to death by a speeding vehicle as he crossed the Kitui-Machakos highway alone at Kwa-Vonza in Kitui Rural sub-county on Monday last week.
On arrival at the morgue, the Meru family was informed by attendants that another team led by the child’s maternal grandfather Ngungi Mbuku had an hour earlier arrived with a burial permit and picked up the body for burial in Nguutani area in Mwingi West subcounty in Kitui.
The Meru team that had the backing of the dead child’s maternal grandmother engaged another group that supported Mbuku’s action, saying the AP officer and his family had no right to bury the child as they had not paid dowry.
However, the AP's wife Mumbe Ngungi wailed that her father had no right to bury her son without her permission. She later reported the matter to Kitui Central subcounty police commander Sicily Gatiti.
They were still holed up in a meeting at Gatiti’s office at the time this report was filed.
The Meru family told reporters they were not interested in pursuing the matter further as it had the potential of breaking relations with their Kitui in-laws family.
