Body stays in morgue for three months over dowry dispute

Nairobi's Lang'ata Cemetery. [Photo: Courtesy]

It is now three months since Priscilla Mwango died but her body is still at the mortuary because of a dispute over dowry.

Nathan Ondieki and Mwango were married for 26 years, but he cannot bury his wife because his in-laws have demanded that he pay more than one cow as dowry.

The magistrate’s court ordered that he pay one cow and that he be allowed to bury his wife at their matrimonial home. 

On October 29 last year, the court heard that both families had sealed the dowry issue, which would have seen Mwango’s family recognise the relation.

The man has also not been allowed to view his wife’s body.

The lower court found that the two were legally married because of their long cohabitation.

But Mwango's siblings – Rachael Kerubo, Agnes Arumba, David Arumba, and Onkoba Nyareru – went to the High Court, saying they were not satisfied with the lower court’s ruling.

They want to bury Mwango on another piece of land, saying that Kisii custom demands that if a man cannot paid dowry, his wife be buried by her siblings.

“The learned magistrate erred in fact and in law in finding that the plaintiff should pay one cow to the deceased's family, as agreed at the meeting of October 29, 2017,” the appeal filed by Matandura and Wamalwa Advocates reads.

Mwango was working as a nutritionist at Kenyatta National Hospital until she died of cancer. She married Ondieki in 1993 and they had two children.

According to the man, sometime in 2003, he went to Mwango’s family in a bid to secure her father’s blessings.

He told the court that he paid Sh10,000 but his father-in-law died before the customary ceremony was conducted.

According to Ondieki, his in-laws were not present.

He insisted that he was willing to pay dowry again although there was no agreement on how much should be given.

The court heard that no one in Mwango's family had demanded dowry when she was alive.

Arumba, Mwango's elder brother, told the court that Ondieki was a stranger to the family as he had not paid dowry.

According to Arumba, the widower should attend the burial just like any other mourner.

“Traditionally, when a woman dies before the payment of dowry, the husband rushes home and agrees with her family on the payment of dowry, then it is paid before the burial,” Arumba testified.

He agreed that he had met with Ondieki and they had agreed that a cow be handed over. However, he changed his mind, noting that he could not conclusively decide on behalf of the family on how much ought to be paid.

Arumba said Mwango's family was no longer interested in Ondieki’s offer since he had decided to sue them.

On the children, the court heard that they belonged to the man but were free to go to their mother's family.