Battle for prime city land delays woman's burial

A seemingly innocuous obituary appeared in the Daily Nation last week, announcing the funeral arrangements for Beatrice Syokau Kathumba.

Two things, however, caught the eye.

One, that the deceased had passed on at the Kenyatta National Hospital on July 4, 2014 and the burial permit “was issued to Sylvester Peter Ndeti, who presented false information that he is the son of Beatrice Syokau Kathumbi…”

Two, the deceased would be buried on June 24, a month from the day the obituary was published.

The death of Mrs Kathumba in 2014 was preceded by her disappearance four years earlier.

A day before she died, her close family members were alerted that she was admitted to KNH.

SURVIVING WIFE

Mrs Kathumba was the second and only surviving wife of the late John Kathumba Makuthi of Machakos.

Her co-wife, Esther Nzula Kathumba, passed on in 2009, ten years after their husband.

Before his death in 1989, Mr Kathumba owned a 49-acre piece of land in what is today Embakasi, next to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

The land, whose current market value runs into billions of shillings, has since been the subject of controversy over its ownership.

In 1971, the Kenya Airports Authority had attempted to encroach on Mr Kathumba’s land to facilitate the expansion of JKIA, but then President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta intervened, directing that the land could only be acquired upon compensation.

CUSTODIAN OF LAND

When Mr Kathumba died on August 6, 1989, his widow was left as the custodian of the land.

That was the beginning of a vicious battle over the property — involving the family, influential grabbers and ministry of Land cartels.

Sheafs of documents — including court proceedings, medical records, letters, police reports and post-mortem results — paint the image of a complex land saga.

Initially, ministry officials were said to have for years frustrated her efforts to change the documents to her name.

At one point in 1997, Ms Kathumba was issued with a fake title deed as various groups scrambled to sub-divide the prime property.

TRAGIC TWIST

After years of push and pull, things took a tragic twist when Mrs Kathumba disappeared on March 4, 2010.

Her two step daughters, Litha Katumbi Kathumba and Amina Mbula Kathumba, tried in vain to look for her.

Four years later, the two sisters got wind of her whereabouts and rushed to KNH, only to be told that she had died the previous night.

They also discovered that a burial permit had already been issued to one Sylvester Ndeti, who they say is a complete stranger to them.

Mr Ndeti had also allegedly come together with another man, Mr Dickson Wambua, who claimed he had been authorised by the deceased to exercise power of attorney on her behalf.

EXTENDED FAMILY

Another person, Mr Saifa Mutei, a member of the extended Kathumbi family, also emerged, claiming to be the head of the family.

In a sworn affidavit, Mr Mutei said that the deceased had not disappeared but had been living with Mr Wambua.

The burial permit issued at the time indicated that Mrs Kathumba was to be buried in Mitaboni, Machakos County.

But the two sisters got a court order to stop the burial in 2014 and the body was taken to Machakos Funeral Home.

When the sisters moved to the High Court in Nairobi seeking a post-mortem and the right to bury their mother, a government pathologist at Machakos Hospital, Dr Waithera Githendu, said that a new burial permit could only be issued upon cancellation of the first one, which had been issued to Mr Ndeti.

BURIAL PERMIT

“There was a previous burial permit issued by Kenyatta National Hospital, number 765677, to one Silvester Ndeti which has not been cancelled,” said Dr Githendu, adding that she had also conducted a second post-mortem whose samples had been forwarded to the government laboratory.

The court granted the daughters the right to bury the body but there was another hitch: the two sisters could not agree on a burial site with Mr Ndeti, Mr Mutei and Mr Wambua, who had the documents. The body was again returned to Machakos Funeral Home as the legal battle dragged on.

The matter went through several mentions until May 7, 2015, when Justice William Musyoka  dismissed the case.

Immediately, the daughters sought orders to review the decision. Even before the matter of review was heard, Mr Ndeti, Mr Mutei and Mr Wambua attempted to bury Mrs Kathumba on May 9, 2015. But once again the sisters rushed to court to stop the burial.

MOVE FORWARD

In October 2015, the case was Stood Over Generally (SOG), meaning it could not move forward for various reasons.

In court parlance, SOG means a judge orders the file to be taken to the Registrar until such a time when parties agree on the way forward.

In the meantime, the Director of Public Prosecutions took up the matter, following a petition by the two sisters, and ordered investigations.

Later, a public inquest was ordered but this took one year to commence.

SUBMISSIONS

In his written submissions to the inquest, Mr Mutei argued that as stepdaughters to Mrs Kathumba, the two sisters had no claim to her property.

He further argued that given that Mrs Kathumba had no children of her own, her two step daughters could not bury her.

“The applicants (step daughters) have been a constant cause of annoyance to the society in that, being married daughters and without any right to control the burial of a family member from the father’s family under Kamba customary law, they stopped the burial of their own mother through tactics similar to this matter,” Mr Mutei said in his affidavit.