A court in Homa Bay has suspended the burial of Rachuonyo North Assistant County Commissioner James Mabeya over a family disagreement.
The Magistrate Court in Homa Bay gave orders that the burial of the administrator be suspended until a case filed by his “second wife” is heard and determined.
Mabeya died on April 5 while undergoing treatment at a hospital in Eldoret Town.
The body has been lying at the hospital mortuary.
His family had made plans to bury the body on Saturday at his home in Cheranganyi, Trans Nzoia County.
However, the court ordered the family to suspend the burial ceremony after a woman filed a case in court accusing the family of the deceased of failing to recognize her as Mabeya’s second wife.
In the case filed under a certificate of urgency, Eve Adhiambo Okuku, the complainant, argued that she is Mabeya’s second wife and should be recognized by the family.
Pacifica Nyaboke, Brian Kegicha, Andrew Mabeya and Jeyi Mabeya have been listed as the first, second, third and fourth respondents in the case respectively.
On Friday, Homa Bay Principal Magistrate Joy Wesonga while giving directives restrained the respondents from burying the deceased in the absence of the complainant.
“An order hereby given to temporarily restrain the respondents by themselves, their agents or any other person from removing the body of the deceased from the mortuary and burying him at Cheranganyi home in the absence of the applicant whom they have failed to recognize as second wife to the deceased,” Wesonga wrote.
The magistrate also ordered police to surrender a car that was at Kendu Bay Police Station to the applicant.
“The applicant is hereby restrained from disposing of the said motor vehicle pending hearing and determination of this application,” the order went on.
An inter-parties hearing will start on April 13,2021.
