KERICHO, Kenya — The late KCB Bank executive Rosemary Chemutai Koech-Kimwatu was buried at her parents’ home in Chepseon, Kericho County, on Friday night, just hours after a court issued orders temporarily stopping her burial without the involvement and consent of her husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu.
The burial has now added a new dimension to the dispute over Rosemary’s final resting place, with the parties expected to return to the Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court on Monday, August 31, despite the interment.
Reports indicate that Rosemary’s family proceeded with the funeral arrangements after allegedly not being served with the court order before the burial.
Court Had Stopped Burial
The development came only hours after Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi certified Kimwatu’s application as urgent and issued interim orders restraining Rosemary’s family, KCB Bank and other parties from removing her remains from Lee Funeral Home or proceeding with her burial without his involvement.
The court specifically barred the respondents, their relatives, agents and employees from interring Rosemary without her husband’s involvement and consent pending an inter partes hearing.
Kimwatu had moved to court after learning that Rosemary’s family intended to bury her at her parents’ home in Chepseon, rather than at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong, Kajiado County.
Husband Challenges Funeral Arrangements
Kimwatu says he married Rosemary at St Austin’s Catholic Church in Nairobi in August 2013 and argues that their 13-year marriage, as well as the fact that they had four children, gave him a right to participate in decisions regarding her final rites.
He has accused Rosemary’s parents, Paul and Beatrice Koech, and her sister, Judy Koech-Oyamo, of excluding him from funeral committees and preparations following her death on August 21.
The family dispute has therefore moved beyond the question of where Rosemary should be buried, with the court now expected to consider the circumstances surrounding the burial and the competing claims by her husband and family.
Rosemary, who served as KCB Bank’s Head of Data Protection, was found dead at her home in Ngong on August 21. A postmortem conducted by government pathologist Dr Johansen Oduor established that she died by suicide.
The circumstances surrounding her final days and the disputes within her family have attracted significant public attention, while investigations into her death continue.
