- The 12-year-old Kennedy Onyango is alleged to have died from a gunshot during the protests.
- His family failed to agree on where the boy will be buried.
Image: ROBERT OMOLLO
A mediation process to resolve the burial dispute of a boy who died during anti-government protests in Ongata Rongai, Kajiado county has flopped.
The 12-year-old Kennedy Onyango is alleged to have died from a gunshot during the protests.
His family failed to agree on where the boy will be buried.
The disagreement came after a court in Mbita asked them to resolve the matter through mediation.
Onyango's father Dennis Okinyi, halt the burial after he went to court seeking to have boy buried in Suba South constituency.
They differed after Onyango's mother Jocinta Anyango, wanted the burial to take place at Kamasengre in Rusinga Island, Suba North constituency.
The couple separated and Anyango got married to another man.
Mbita Principal Magistrate Nicodemus Moseti asked the warring parties to resolve the matter through alternative dispute resolution.
But the parties could not agree on the place to bury the boy. The matter will now be addressed in court.
On Wednesday, Hedmod Kobil who represents Okinyi, said they disagreed with the mediation because it was not the better way of solving a case like Onyango's.
“Mediation method does not have proof like the court would do should someone change later. Parties just give views on a matter in an informal manner,” Kobil said.
Lawyer Humphrey Obach who represented Anyango said it was difficult to handle cases involving African traditions through mediation.
Obach said in such a circumstance, one of the parties will be forced to accept a suggestion made by a mediator.
“It was going to force one team to accept the decision made by a mediator on the basis of respecting traditions. It’s now for the court to decide,” Obach said.
Both parties will proceed to court to begin the process afresh.
In an affidavit signed by Anyango, she described her ex-husband’s application to stop the burial as malicious and a waste of the court's time and resources.
She claimed the man abandoned her at home in Kisaku village and went to live in Sindo.
"I refused to take the children with me but shortly thereafter my first born daughter was sent to deliver them to my house in Nairobi. She then went back to Kaksingri to live with her grandmother," Anyango wrote.
The mother said she enrolled Onyango at Ongata Rongai School for Grade 7 where he was until he died.
She said Okinyi abandoned his family and only appeared when the body arrived in Mbita.