Family in pain after Nigerian man denies them access to their daughter’s body
By Mathew Ndungu, October 22, 2019A family at Makongeni village, Thika in Kiambu County is in dilemma after a Nigerian man purporting to be their daughter’s husband denied them access to her body after she succumbed to acute pneumonia at The Nairobi Hospital a month ago.
Maureen Muthoni, 31, a businessperson running a tours and travel company got into a love affair with Charles Emedo nine years ago- a man who enjoys a dual citizenship in Nigeria and Sweden but lives in Karen, Kenya.
Although Emedo has never paid dowry for Muthoni or visited their family to report their affair to parents, the two had two kids.
According to Lydia Nyamwathi, the mother, their daughter was separated from them after the two got into a love affair until December last year when Muthoni contracted pneumonia and got an admission at Karen hospital.
“She used to be responsible and took care of our family. She was actually the one paying for her younger sister’s school fees until she befriended the Nigierian man,” said Nyamwathi.
The family only got in touch with her at the hospital but after she was discharged, they were disallowed to visit her home in Karen by Emedo.
Two months after the discharge, Muthoni’s pneumonia illness resurfaced and was admitted at M.P Shah Hospital where she was treated and discharged.
Two weeks later, Muthoni’s condition deteriorated and was rushed to Nairobi Hospital where she passed on after spending days in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The scuffle between Emedo and the Muthoni’s parents intensified after the Nigerian man denied them a chance to pay the pending bill amounting to Sh 2 million despite the two having agreed to raise the funds together.
“He asked us to raise funds with our friends and relatives and clear the bill together to have the body released. Even after taking to him over Sh 200,000, the hostile, rogue man went into in hideout,” the agonizing mother said.
Emedo had undertaken to foot the bill through friends after he managed to secure a pay bill number, money that he has never paid to Nairobi Hospital.
Apart from the hospital bill, the family has been slapped with funeral service bill amounting to Sh 75,000 and continues to accumulate as the body has not been laid to rest over the tussle.
The family has since sworn an affidavit to restrict Emedo from collecting the body from Umash funeral home as they suspect he is capable of dumping the body anywhere and later fly abroad.
“He had told us that he would decide where to bury our daughter and can in fact do it without our consent and presence. This made us suspect anything is possible with him as he lacks humanity,” she said.
The troubled family is now appealing to the government to have the man who has never offered them any financial support compelled to either pay the pending hospital and morgue bills or release their daughters’ documents for them to seek means to raise funds.
They also want their daughters’ children released and be allowed to parent them until they reach the age of 18 years.