Nairobi Star (Nairobi)
Irene Wairimu
10 June 2011
An attempt by Hannah Wanjiru, the mother of deceased Olympic marathon champion Samuel Kamau Wanjiru, to stop her son’s burial on Saturday received a set back after a judge refused to grant her orders without hearing both sides in the matter.
Wanjiru is suing her daughter-in-law Trizah Njeri whom she wants stopped from removing Wanjiru’s body from the morgue or conducting burial arrangements until investigations into the athlete’s death are complete.
When Wanjiru appeared before Judge Anyara Emukule, he directed her lawyer Gordon Ogolla to serve the athlete’s widow and her lawyer Ndegwa Wahome, before both parties appear before him on Thursday morning. The matter had been certified as urgent by Judge William Ouko on Tuesday afternoon.
Njeri plans to bury her husband on June 11 at the family’s farm in Gatimu village in Nyandarua West. However, her mother-in-law is seeking a second injunction to stop the burial after an earlier one issued by Judge Emukule was lifted on June 2.
At the time, Judge Emukule had said that there was no need to keep the body any longer since pathologists had concluded all investigations.
Wanjiru is dissatisfied with the judge’s findings and says that new evidence points to the fact that her son’s death could have been due to murder.
She further says new evidence has soared the already strained relations between her and her daughter-in-law. “Both of us have inherent rights to participate in the burial arrangements but I’m afraid that may not be possible with the doubts hanging over my son’s cause of death,” Wanjiru has told the court.
She wants Njeri, the family’s watchman and another woman, Jane Nduta who was said to have accompanied her son home on the night of his death to come clean as to the events of May 16.
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