A woman in Embu County caused a scene at a Karurina village gravesite on Monday morning after she arrived to find her alleged husband already in the ground without her knowledge, hours before the agreed meeting time.
Mercy Wanja Nyaga made her way to the grave of the late Simon Ndwiga Njoka, a retired Kenya Forest officer who died aged 69, and proceeded to uproot the cross and wreath flowers placed there during the early-morning burial.
Why Embu woman vandalised alleged husband’s grave
Wanja told Kimuri Radio that the two families had reached an agreement on Sunday to collect the body from the mortuary together, with a 9 am meeting point set for Monday.
When she arrived, she was informed that the first family had already completed the burial by 8 am, an hour before they were due to meet.
“We agreed to meet at 9 am to go for the body. I was shocked to be told at the meeting point that they had already buried the man by 8 am. They denied me and my three children our right to bury my husband,” she said.
Wanja maintains she bore Njoka three children out of wedlock, though the first family disputes her status entirely.
The matter had previously reached the courts. A court order in Case MCCC/E205/2026, Mercy Wanja Nyaga Vs Eric Macharia Wawira and Juliana Gaturi at Embu Magistrate Court, issued by consent before Hon. R. G. Mundia (P.M.) on October 29, 2026, directed that the deceased be interred at the family graveyard and that Wanja be permitted to take part in the burial.
The order, signed by Hon. Atieno Joan Otieno, carried a penal notice warning of consequences for disobedience.
First Family Defends Early Burial
The first family did not deny burying Njoka ahead of schedule but offered a practical explanation. A nephew of the deceased told reporters that the family had depleted all their savings settling outstanding hospital and mortuary bills, and received no financial contribution from Wanja’s side.
“We had no extra money to prepare eulogies, book vehicles for transport or prepare meals, thus, we buried him early in the morning to avoid more costs,” he said.
The deceased’s mother, Josephina Weruma, added that she had no prior knowledge of a second family.
“I never heard him talk of a child outside. We learned about the children and the second wife after his death,” she said.
The incident has laid bare a painful family divide, with a court order caught between grief, competing claims of belonging, and the hard realities of burial costs in rural Kenya.
