Guests who showed up for the burial of Millicent Muthoni and her four children on Friday were disappointed after the ceremony failed to take place.
Muthoni, 38, and her four children aged between 13 to one year were allegedly hacked to death by her husband Paul Murage Njuki at Kathata village in Gichugu two weeks ago.
The burial was to take place at Samson Corner village, Kirinyaga County. It was called off on Thursday evening after two of Muthoni’s maternal uncles sought a court order on Wednesday barring the burial from taking place.
The two went to court after expressing their dissatisfaction over the burial site for the five.
The Wang'uru town-based court, where they sought the order, will now give further directives into the matter on December 15.
According to Muthoni’s biological brother Patrick Ireri, all the deceased were to be buried in his late mother’s land, which she inherited from her parents. This seems to have angered his mother's brothers.
“Despite the cultural beliefs that bar women from securing land inheritance from their parents, my grandparents went against the odds. They indiscriminately subdivided all their six acres to all her eight children inclusive of our mother, who was the first to get her share,” he told the star.
Ireri said when their mother passed on in 2018, she was buried beside her husband's grave, thus leaving her inheritance to her children.
“The land in which my parents have been buried cannot accommodate all the five bodies because it is a very small land. We, therefore, opted to lay them in my mother’s land, which she rightfully inherited from her parents.”
Ireri said they are at a loss of word over the turn of events since all along, as a family, they have been cooperating in preparing a decent send-off for their kins.
Ireri said the injunction has dealt them a big blow because much of the burial preparations were complete.
“We shall obey the court order in spite of getting overtly disappointed over it because we have had a rough preparation period . We are still in mourning over the loss of lives of our relatives. All in all, we hope to get justice over the unfortunate deaths of my sister, nephew, and nieces.”
Ireri says he had a hectic Friday morning making phone calls to friends and relatives informing them over the developing issue. Those who had already arrived, he said, were forced to go back.
Njuki, the alleged murderer, was last week arraigned in a Gichugu court. He is yet to take a plea as the office of the DCI filed an application seeking to be granted 14 days to carry out an in-depth investigation into the matter. The prayer was granted by the court
Investigation officer Lazarus Kiprop is expected to submit his report before the court on Wednesday, December 15, before the accused takes a plea before principal magistrate Leah Kaberia.