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Mzungu in Mombasa mortuary for 2 years as women fight over millions

County_Nairobi
 Harry’s body has remained at the Coast General Hospital for two years Photo: Courtesy

Harry Roy Veevers died suddenly in his house in Mombasa on February 14, 2013.

The British national is yet to be buried because of suspicions that he may have been murdered over his multi-million shilling estate. As two women claiming to be his wives fight it out in court, Harry’s body has been lying at the Coast General Hospital mortuary for two years.

Harry was a wealthy adventurer with vast business interests in the UK, but emigrated to Kenya in the early 1990s after divorcing his first British wife, Marvis Florence. His alleged ‘incurable infidelity’ was said to have been a major cause of their fallout.

Harry, a Christian, married his second wife, Azra Parveen Din, a British Muslim woman, and made Kenya his home. The two women have since been locked in a dispute over property and Harry’s body.

Harry’s first family want him buried in the UK, while his second wife and her children want the burial to be in Kenya at the Sapphire Muslim Cemetery, from where his body was exhumed in early 2014.

The cause of Harry’s death is a subject of an inquest from which a magistrate withdrew last October after her clerk was accused of trying to intimidate one party. Harry’s first family believes he was poisoned and hurriedly buried before an autopsy. The family disputes he converted to Islam after divorcing Marvis and swears a lack of evidence that he legally married Azra in the UK.

While Harry and Azra had two daughters, Alexandra and Hellen Veevers, he kept in touch with his children from his first marriage that often visited and worked in his construction firm in Mombasa.

When he died suddenly in February 2013, his first family was allegedly denied access to the body which was buried on February 17 before an autopsy, but later exhumed following a court order after an application by Harry’s family in the UK. The court also decreed a post-mortem examination.

An inquest into the death began in October last year. Azra and her daughters lost a court battle to have the body reburied in Mombasa. The court ruled that the body could only be buried after the inquest is concluded.

The post-mortem revealed that the soils under Harry’s body in the grave had traces of poison. It is alleged by Harry’s first family that there was foul play after he indicated desire to be with a third woman “for love, affection and marriage.”

On October 23 last year, Richard John Veevers, Harry’s son from his first marriage, told the inquest that his father was probably murdered over his intention to remarry, and that the new wife stood to inherit a share of his father’s estate worth over £700,000 (Sh92 million).

 Richard John Veevers Photo: Courtesy

Richard claimed that Azra was hostile to him and his brother Philip when they visited after Harry’s death, adding that a scuffle ensued between the two families at the mortuary when he tried to take pictures of his late father.

He added that he received threats from his stepmother, an allegation Azra denies, instead accusing Richard of orchestrating a “fantasy of false theories.”

Richard’s lawyer, Kinyua Kamundi, protested the decision by Mombasa Principal Magistrate Jacinta Kwena to disqualify herself from the case over claims by Azra’s lawyer that Kwena’s court clerk had tried to interfere with proceedings.

Kwena however excused herself from the bench. On April 6 this year, Justice Dorcas Chepkwony ordered that the inquest resume under a new magistrate. Harry’s first family are paying for the cost of preserving his body.

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