Nairobi court halts burial of KCB Bank employee amid family dispute

A Nairobi court has issued interim orders to halt the burial of Rosemary Chemutai Kimwatu, the late Head of Data Protection at KCB Bank Group, following a dispute between her husband and her family.

Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi ordered that Kimwatu’s remains stay at Lee Funeral Home and prohibited any funeral arrangements or burial without the involvement of her husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu. The husband, who married the deceased in 2013, argues that as the surviving spouse, he has the legal right to oversee the burial and wishes for her to be interred at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong.

Conversely, the deceased’s parents and sister intend for her to be buried in Kericho County. The dispute involves KCB Bank Kenya, which the husband claims interfered by instructing the funeral home to release the body to the deceased’s sister and son, citing the bank’s internal employment records regarding next of kin. The court has fixed the case for mention on August 31.