The first family of the late Mburu Kinani has moved to court seeking to have the remains of their father exhumed from the second family’s burial site, where he was buried.
The family accuse their step-siblings, including the Kiambu Deputy Governor Rosemary Njeri Kirika, of sidelining them by burying their father at their home in Gilgil, Nakuru County, secretly.
The two families have been in a bitter dispute, which was temporarily resolved on June 12, 2025, after Magistrate Gerhard Gitonga ruled that the body be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Gatanga, Murang’a County, beside the grave of his first wife.
However, the second family, led by the Kiambu Deputy Governor Rosemary Njeri Kirika, together with her siblings, moved to the Milimani High Court Family Division, which overturned Magistrate Gitonga’s ruling.
On September 16, 2025, Justice Helene Namisi ruled that the body of the late Mburu be buried at his second wife’s home in Gilgil, Nakuru County.
“The final resting place of the late Mburu Kinani shall be his farm in Gilgil, Nakuru County, next to the grave of his late wife, Magdalene Waithera Mburu,” Justice Namisi ruled.
According to the first family, the second family and their step-siblings went ahead and took their father’s body on September 17, 2025, from Kijabe Mission Hospital and buried him starting at 1800 hours.
Not given chance to appeal
The first family, through lawyers Danstan Omari and Stanley Kinyanjui, argue that they were never given a chance to appeal the High Court ruling, which gave Rosemary Kirika and her siblings the green light to bury the body.
They now want the judgement delivered by Justice Namisi to be set aside and an order to be issued for the exhumation of the body of the late Mburu for them to be involved in his final resting rights at his ancestral home in Gatanga and as per the Agikuyu custom.
“That the judgement delivered and orders issued in High Court Family Appeal Case No. E094 Of 2025 – Geoffrey Nganga vs. Ides Wairimu Mburu & Others on September 16, 2025, by Justice Hellen Namisi, be quashed,” part of the orders sought read.
“That an order be issued that the body of the deceased, Mburu Kinani, be released to the appellants for interment at his ancestral home in Gatanga,” the first family states in the application.
The lawyers argue that in the High Court appeal by Mburu’s stepchildren, they had sneaked in new documents which were never availed at the Magistrate’s Court during the hearing of the dispute.
Mburu passed away on November 20, 2204, at the age of 92.
