Eldoret Law Court has issued injunction stopping the burial of a regular police officer Vincent Kiplimo who succumbed to a short illness at a private hospital last month following a dispute over his burial place pitting his wife Caroline Mumbua Kiplimo and her in-laws.
The deceased’s wife wants him to be buried at their Uswa Farm along the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and Uasin Gishu counties where they had settled for the last 18 years.
But her in-laws led by the deceased’s mother Elizabeth Yator, a retired primary school tutor and one of sons, Hosea Kiptoo Korir, insists that Vincent Kiplimo should be laid to rest at Kibendo village in Keiyo North Sub County which is the family’s ancestral land.
Senior Principal Magistrate Onkoba Mogire has ordered that the deceased’s mother and her son not to bury or dispose of the body of the officer which has been lying at Iten county referral hospital morgue for one months until the matter before his court is heard and determined.
The deceased’s widow moved to court and obtained the orders on learning that her in-laws had planned to bury the police officer at Kibendo village and not at his matrimonial home located at Uswo village along the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and Uasin Gishu counties.
She has sued her mother in-law Elizabeth Yator and brother in-law Hosea Kiptoo Korir for deliberately excluding her and her four children among them a Form Two student from the funeral arrangements.
“I got married to Victor Korir eighteen years ago and we were blessed with four children with our first who is now in form two. My husband built me a home at Uswa where we have settled and there is no way he should be buried at his parents’ home in Kibendo village along the
Kerio Valley,” argued the deceased’s widow.
In her affidavit filed through Nyamwega Osoro and company advocates, Mumbua argues that she was taking care of her husband -at Real Hospital in Eldoret until his demise on August 20.
Mumbua further states that while at the hospital, her brother-in-law asked her to surrender all documents and bank details belonging to the deceased.
She says she did not respond to the demand because she was still in shock as it was soon after her husband died.
Mumbua claims that her brother-in-law went to Harambee Sacco Eldoret branch to follow up on the deceased shares since he knew that the deceased was a police officer.
She says her brother-in-law further told her that she would not benefit from or access the benefits of late brother.
Mumbua said that her in-laws decided that the deceased be buried in Kapedo with total disregard of his matrimonial home located on parcel number KARUNA/SOSIANI BLOCK 8 (USWO) /330 at Uswo sub location on the border of Elgeyo Marakwet and Uasin Gishu counties without her involvement and participation.
