A family has written a letter to President Uhuru Kenyatta asking him to intervene in a matter that has kept the body of their mother at the Machakos Funeral Home for over four years.
The letter written by the family of Beatrice Syokau Kathumba, who passed away in May 2014, outlines details of a Ksh6 Billion land dispute that has prevented the woman's family from burying her.
According to Syokau's stepdaughters, a group of individuals have kept the family in court claiming ownership of the 49.7 hectares of land near the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).
In May 2018, the family had accrued Ksh2,869,660.20 in legal fees pertaining to cases filed seeking permission to bury the deceased woman.
[caption caption="Beatrice Syokau Kathumba, deceased woman whose family has written to President Uhuru asking for help"]
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"The objective of writing to you is to request for financial help regarding the burial of our late mother who still lies in the morgue to this day," the letter by one of the stepdaughters, Lita Kathumba read in part.
The letter has since been stamped as received by the office of the president and copied to Attorney General Paul Kihara, IG Joseph Boinnet, DPP Noordin Haji, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi among others.
One Mr Silvester Ndeti is said to have obtained a burial permit for Syokau on claims that he was a relative to the deceased.
Kathumbi and her sister Amina, however, successfully obtained a court injunction over the supposed burial and sought orders for a postmortem.
Mr Ndeti had further claimed that Syokau was 89 years old at the time of her death, a claim that was dismissed by the family who produced identity documents to indicate that she was 69.
The land is said to have originally belonged to Syokau's husband John Kathumba Makuthi who died in 1989. The man had two wives, Syokau and her co-wife Esther Nzola who died in 2009.
Syokau had no children of her own, however, Nzola had borne six daughters and four sons.
[caption caption="Kin to deceased woman Beatrice Syokau from left Jackson Mutua, Joyce Mukonyo, Lita Kathumba and Amina Kathumba"]
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