•Magistrate Heston Nyaga said the old woman died of natural causes and was not murdered.
•He also advised the personal representatives of her estate to follow up the case even after she is interred.
After being in the mortuary for five years, the body of an 89-year-old woman will now be buried after a court order.
Members of her family have been quarreling over who should bury the old woman after it emerged that some of them and a stranger plotted her death to inherit a 1,000-acre property.
Yesterday chief magistrate Heston Nyaga ruled that the woman died of natural causes and was not murdered as alleged by some relatives.
"In conclusion, I find that there is nothing to convince me that the deceased’s death was suspicious. She died of natural causes. There is no one to be held culpable for her death," Nyaga ruled.
“My advice to the parties is to let the deceased’s soul rest in peace. The deceased’s body ought to be buried without further delay. She does not deserve the torment that she has undergone even in death, as a result of human greed,” Nyaga said in his ruling.
He advised that the representatives of her estate could follow up the case even after she is interred.
“I will leave the family to discuss how to settle the massive bill accrued at the morgue," he concluded.
Litha Kathumbi, a stepdaughter, had testified that the deceased lived in Embakasi where her father had a home and that she occasionally visited her.
During such a visit in 2013, the mother asked her to return another day but when she did so, she did not find her. She unsuccessfully looked for her before reporting the matter to the police. The police told her to be patient. She was later called by a Joyce Mukonyo and told the old lady had died at Kenyatta National Hospital.
"I visited the hospital and on checking her body, I discovered it had bruises on her right hand which showed that she had been tied up by a rope. Blood was oozing from the mouth," Litha told court.
The court was also told that some relatives tried to bury her without informing others and did not carry out a postmortem examination. Litha suspected that she was killed because of the 1,000 acres in Embakasi.
The deceased did not have biological children.
Carolyne Nzau, a step granddaughter told the court that she had been asked by her father to take care of the deceased. When there she was restricted from going out by one Dickson Wambua who occasionally visited the grandmother.
She said the deceased used to ask for other family members but was restricted by Wambua. She said she was kicked out of the deceased’s house on allegations that she was pregnant. She learnt of her grandmother’s death later on.
Wambua told court that he was introduced by his pastor to the deceased and instructed to take care of her as she was sick. He said he was a lawyer.
He said he took custody of all documents of her properties. He said in 2013 the deceased was to go for psychiatric check-up because she had been suffering for a long time.
He said the deceased gave him the power of attorney. He said the old woman fell ill and was taken to hospital where she died. A court stopped her burial.
To Wambua the deceased was never abducted or poisoned.