An 86-year-old woman is begging that the body of her son be reburied in its 'proper' grave.
Targot Kipchabas said the body was ordered exhumed a year-and-half ago from next to a new secondary school because it was "a nuisance to learning".
The body of Paul Kipchabas, 65, has been lying in the Baringo Referral Hospital morgue since April last year. He died in hospital in March.
Forty-two unclaimed bodies, Kipchabas' among them, are to be disposed of in about a week but the family lawyer has arranged for it to be retained until a land dispute is settled.
Targot Kipchabas told the story to the Star as she sat outside her rickety, grass-thatched house in remote Koroto village in Baringo North on Wednesday.
She sat on an old cowhide and held her face in her hands.
"I am wondering what life means. To me, from where I sit life seems so useless," Kipchabas said.
Her son was a retired police officer.
The family said they buried the body on ancestral land where the new Koroto Secondary school stands. Instead, the school should move, Kipchabas said.
A court ordered the exhumation on April 9, 2021.
Her son is said to have been engaged in a land dispute with the school.
The school was to hold a stakeholders' meeting on Wednesday but it was called off at the last minute because family members allegedly planned to storm the school.
Registration status of the school under the Education ministry was unclear.
"I appeal to the government and people of Kenya to help me reclaim the body of my son, be it just the bones, and have them buried in his grave, so my heart can relax," his mother said.
She said it's hard to believe he's gone "unless I see him with my own eyes".
Before he died he used to buy food for her and even bought materials to build a new house for her.
She said she has accepted God's will to take her son, "but how his body is being held in the mortuary so long gives me sleepless nights".
The mother still claims ownership of the land, saying two other children are buried there.
She accused wealthy individuals of trying to grab ancestral land in the name of constructing a school.
"I pray the school be moved and my son's body be brought back to rest in his already-dug grave. I have never seen such demonic actions in past generations," she said.
Family lawyer David Rutto said they appealed to the court to no avail.
"It is like some people took advantage because we are poor but we hope one day justice will prevail and our loved one will be given a decent send-off," he said.
Earlier, former Baringo North MP William Cheptumo, now Baringo Senator-elect, urged the school management and community to sit down with the aggrieved family and figure out a way forward.
"This is a public institution that benefits our village so there is no need of clashing over such petty issues as land," he said. "If there is any issue, people should settle it urgently," Cheptumo said.
Retired soldier Moses Kwonyike, a resident of the area, denied the family owned the land.
He said when Paul Kipchabas heard a school was about to be built, he left their home four kilometres away to build a temporary structure on the school land.
The claim could not be immediately verified.
(Edited by V. Graham)
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