Controversy as court stops burial of boy shot during anti-finance bill protests

Jocinter Anyango, mother to 12-year-old Kennedy Onyango who was shot during demos in Rongai mourns as they wait for an autopsy report at Ongata Rongai Sub-County mortuary on July 01, 2024. [Denish Ochieng, Standard]

The burial of Kennedy Onyango, a boy who was shot in Ongata Rongai during the anti-Finance Bill protests on Saturday aborted after two families disagreed over the body.

Onyango ‘s burial was slated for last Friday at Matenga village in Mbita, Homa Bay County.

The body was being transported from Ongata Rongai to the homestead for burial police stopped the convoy at Mbita town and took the body.

The family of the deceased was then issued with a court order stopping the burial of boy as police transported the body to a government morgue in neighbouring Suba Central Sub-county.

The court order came following a complaint raised by Denish Okinyi Obaga who is alleged to be Onyango’s biological father.

A resident of Kisaku Village, Rang’wa East Sub-location, Kaksingri West Location, Mr Obaga argues that burying the deceased in Rusinga would deny him his right as a father.

He argued that besides being the biological father, he lived with the deceased since his birth in 2007 until 2022 when he went to visit his mother, Jocinta Anyango in Ongata Rongai.

This occurred after Mr Obaga separated with Ms Anyango seven years ago.

“There is misinformation after my son’s death. He is 17 years and not 12 years as people had reported before. We were planning to transfer Kennedy from his school in Ongata Rongai where he was in Grade Eight to Suba in August but he died before then,” said Mr Obaga.

This prompted him to challenge Kennedy’s Friday burial.

“I went to court, secured the order and went to Mbita Police Station where I was given police officers to enforce it. Since there was nowhere else the convoy carrying the body could follow, we decided to wait for them in Mbita town where the body was intercepted,” Obaga explained.

In the court case Obaga sued Michael Odero and Jocinta Anyango as the first and the second respondents respectively.

Mbita Principal Magistrate Nicodemus Moseti ordered that the body be taken to Suba Sub-County Hospital Mortuary pending inter-parties hearing of the case.

“This application is certified as urgent. The OCS Mbita Police Station is ordered to enforce the orders herein,” Moseti ordered.

The case will be heard on July 17.