Senator Gloria Orwoba has been caught up in a burial dispute involving her late father’s land that has forced the body of a woman whose relatives claim is a widow to the senator’s late husband to spend four months in the morgue.
At the centre of the dispute which is currently before the Ogembo Law Courts using case number EO-31 of 2023 is a piece of land in Sameta, Kisii county owned by the Senator’s late father Mbera Orwoba.
The Senator and her siblings filed a suit in November 2023 preventing a woman who their relatives claim is their stepmother from being buried at their late father’s land.
Mr Mbera died of diabetes in January 2022. He left behind his estranged wife Esther Kemunto Machoka and four daughters Leah Nyambeki, Lilian Kerubo, Wesley Nyanduko, and Senator Gloria Orwoba.
When Mbera died, there was a dispute regarding his burial. His relatives in Kisii wanted him to be buried at his home. However, Mbera’s daughters led by the senator came out with a will saying that their father had wished to be cremated.
Additionally, there was a long-running dispute within his extended family regarding his failure to sire male children with his wife Esther Kemunto. When Mbera died, his immediate relatives filed a case in court to prevent his burial arguing that he had married a second wife by the name Eunice to sire male children for him.
The case was filed at the Milimani Law Courts using file number EO-80 of 2022. The case which pitted Senator Orwoba and her siblings on one side against their father’s relatives and perceived stepmother was heard for six weeks.
All this time, Mr Mbera’s body was lying at the Umash Funeral home in Nairobi.
According to a rant issued by the Senator on her Facebook livestream, Eunice was never their stepmother. As per the nominated Senator, the woman was ‘just living’ in their father’s homestead in Sameta, Kisii.
“…a woman who had been assisted by my late aunt Agnes. She had been kicked out of her home. She did not have anywhere to stay,” said the Senator.
“My aunt took her in and placed her in my father’s homestead. That is the woman that these idiots are now trying to say was married to my father,” ranted the Senator.
Senator Orwoba insists that her father’s wishes about his burial were very clear. He wanted to be cremated. Her relatives however thought otherwise and went to court to stop the burial.
“Some people went to court to say we have stolen the body of their husband. The first person I called was my mother. I asked her ‘Mummy, you have taken a court order against us?” said the Senator.
“When we went to court we found that this woman had claimed that she had been married and dowry had even been paid. We were in court for six and a half weeks because a woman who had been taken in by my father’s sister was claiming that she had been married and was claiming my father’s body.”
According to the Senator, the woman could not even say her father’s second name in court or even provide photos to show they were married.
“She brought all her four children to court and made them lie,” claims the senator.
The case went on for six weeks and the judgement favoured Senator Orwoba and her siblings.
Mr Mbera was cremated in February last year in Nairobi. No burial was held for him in Kisii.
Fast forward to a year later, Eunice who was already sick during the dispute over Mr Mbera’s burial died. Her death occured at the beginning of November last year.
Senator Gloria Orwoba and her siblings rushed to court arguing that she was a squatter at their father’s land and hence did not deserve to be buried there.
However, the woman’s relatives, backed by some of Mr Mbera’s siblings now say that she was married to the late civil servant for over 20 years and even bore him two children. The woman also had two children of her own from another marriage when she started living at Mr Mbera’s homestead.
The stalemate has caused the woman’s body to be detained at a mortuary for the last two months due to a court order.
While commenting outside the court case, the Senator claimed that there is a scheme to disinherit them from their father’s land. According to Orwoba, the scheme is being orchestrated by her relatives led by her uncle, Henry Nyagechi.
According to the Senator, her father handed over the property to their eldest sister Leah Nyambeki before she died. She added that their mother’s house is still on the property which therefore legally makes the land theirs.
“Henry Nyagechi has been trying to grab my father’s land since time immemorial even when my dad was alive because he did not have any sons,” said Senator Gloria Orwoba.
“My father knew very well that these hyenas would come guns blazing. My father has his next of kin who is my daughter Leah Nyambeki,” added the senator.
