Unusual send-off for Juja tycoon to be buried between two homesteads
By Oliver Musembi, February 2, 2023It will be an unusual send-off for Juja tycoon Christopher Mbote after his co-wives agreed to bury him on a boundary that separates his two homesteads in Gachororo area.
Mzee Mbote was in the news when Thika Chief Magistrate Stella Atambo (pictured) last week made a ruling in a burial dispute allowing his co-wives to share the gravesite equally.
In what lawyers and local residents termed as a strange burial set to take place tomorrow, the body of the businessman will be laid to rest astride the boundary of his two land parcels occupied by his widows. This was after the second wife, Anne Njeri, went to court to block his burial, citing lack of involvement in the preparations.
Following his demise on January 16, the first wife, Margeret Waithera, was alleged to have started burial preparations, even digging his grave within her land, to the exclusion of Njeri.
Land surveyors spent most of Tuesday morning marking and hiving-off portions of the gravesite from either side of the family land as directed by the court.
Following the court ruling, the two widows amicably resolved to have him buried on the boundary that splits their two homesteads.
As this was taking place, Kikuyu elders on the other side buried a banana stem in the grave earlier dug by the first family, warning that if another grave was dug before administering the traditional rites, spirits would haunt the family and demand another soul.
Surveyors representing each family marked the gravesite with precision, to ensure the two widows “share their husband” equally, to the satisfaction of both.
Part of the grave was dug on either side as was directed by court.
“As a family, we are satisfied with the demarcations. All we want is mzee to rest. We thank the court for the arbitration as it has helped resolve the impasse,” said Mercy Karimi, a daughter to Mbote’s first wife.
Elders led by Nyotu wa Njogu explained that Mzee Mbote’s head will lie on the part ceded by the second wife since, according to the Kikuyu tradition, he should face the direction in which the sun sets.
A son from the second family, Gitau Mbote, said each of the two families has their own burial planning committees ahead of tomorrow’s ceremony.
The two families live next to each other on a two-and-a-half acre plot at Gachororo area in Juja town.
Mbote’s body has been lying at the Kenyatta University Funeral Home.