A legal duel is simmering in the Siaya law courts over the estate of a victim of the crashed Ethiopian Airlines Boeing.
Brian Aris K’Obiero, who hails from Sega in Ugenya, Siaya, claims he was married to Canadian Drawn Christine Tanner from Ontario.
Tanner perished in a plane crash on March 10, 2019, in Bishoftu, Ethiopia.
K’Obiero is a teacher at Nyang’oma Boys Secondary School in Siaya and wants the High Court in Siaya to recognise him as the widower.
After such recognition, he hopes to be enjoined in the proceedings for compensation of Tanner by Ethiopian Airlines, a case that has been underway in the United States of America.
The Brian Aris K’Obiero vs Hunter Tanner French case is before Justice Roselyn Aburili of the Siaya law courts, with K’Obiero as the plaintiff and French, a son of the deceased, as the respondent.
K’Obiero asserts that he married the deceased through Luo customary law and is now appealing to culture to prove his point.
He claims that he met Tanner on LinkedIn in 2016 when he was looking for someone to guide him on his master’s thesis on special education.
Tanner was the head of department for special education at Hagersville Secondary School in Canada at that time, K’Obiero asserts.
“We met on LinkedIn and became friends because of our common interest in education,” K’Obiero said.
Through his lawyer Doreen Musebe, in a case filed under the certificate of urgency on March 25, 2022, K'Obiero says that the son of the deceased, refused to recognise him as the widower.
“When she (Tanner) moved to Kenya, we lived at my rented premises and later moved to a bigger house in Narok town between 2016 and 2019,” K’Obiero's affidavit reads.
K'Obiero also claims that Tanner visited his home in Sega in August 2017, where she was introduced as a wife and thereafter a Luo traditional marriage ceremony was organised.
K’Obiero says he even renovated his ‘simba’ (a boy’s house within his parent’s compound) to align with Luo traditions in readiness for marriage.
He notes that Tanner was welcomed by his people and their marriage was sealed as per the dictates of Luo culture.
The plaintiff further claims that when Tanner died in the plane crash, he buried a ‘Yago’ (sausage tree) in his ancestral home, also as per the dictates of Luo culture for a married woman.
Before the alleged burial, K’Obiero avers that he spent three nights outside his house as burial rites require of a Luo widower.
“I have not entered any relationship or involved myself in an intimate affair with any woman ever since I lost my wife,” K’Obiero said.
Hunter is opposing K’Obiero’s assertion, saying that his mother never remarried.
He is stressing the close relationship that allegedly existed between K'Obiero and his mother would not have existed without his knowledge.
“I, Mr Hunter, was entrusted as the trustee of my mother’s estate. We were so close and at no point did she mention that she was engaged or married to the applicant,” Hunter said in his affidavit.
Hunter also asserts that no remains of his mother were buried anywhere, not even in Kenya.
Hunter notes that his mother had two children, namely, Cody Kevin French and himself and had never ever at any point mentioned that she was engaged or married to K’Obiero.
It is his brother, Cody, who visited Addis Ababa in October 2019 to collect his mother’s remains back to Canada.
The respondent is being represented by Tito & Associates and has turned to renowned anthropologist and human rights scholar Dr Steve Ouma Akoth of the Malaika Foundation to consult on Luo customs.
So far, K’Obiero has the support of the Luo Council of Elders, who have sworn an affidavit.
The court has slated the mention of the case to June 30, 2022, for pre-trial directions and fixing of a hearing date.
Parties have until June 30, 2022, to prepare and know how many witnesses they are to call and have requisite documents in place.
The complainant has been granted 21 days to gather and file further affidavits if any.
Meanwhile, the respondent’s attorney has noted with concern that the Siaya law courts do not have a steady internet connection as it relies on a modem. Yet, some clients will be necessitated to follow the proceedings virtually.
Justice Aburili has indicated to the parties that it will be possible to hear and determine the matter as of February 21, 2023.
The Supreme Court of Kenya recently made a ruling that the meaning of equity in marriage is not 50-50 sharing of property.
A case on the legal holding of a common law’s presumption of marriage through cohabitation is also pending at the Supreme Court.
Whereas this case is likely to put into a sharp focus the place of Luo customary marriage and their place in succession, it is also rekindling the memory of the popular SM Otieno and Wambui Otieno case of 1986.
Following the death of Silvano Melea (SM) Otieno, his widow, Wambui had sought to have his remains interred in Ngong against the wish of her in-laws.
The in-laws had wanted Otieno to be buried in his ancestral home in Umira Kager in Nyalgunga, Siaya county.
Ultimately, the court sided with culture, ruling that Otieno be buried in Nyalgunga
(Edited by Tabnacha O).
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