Mummified! Granny lies in mortuary for 11 years over Machakos land dispute

Piece by: star.writer
Lifestyle

The body of a Machakos woman has been lying in a mortuary for 11 years because of a land dispute.

Phyllis Musyimi died in 2008 at her matrimonial home in Maiuni village, Machakos county. She was age 87. The body has been lying at the Machakos Level 5 Hospital mortuary since then.

Her brother-in-law, Stephen Mulinge, moved to court to stop Musyimi from being buried in her one-acre of matrimonial land.

Musyimi’s lastborn son, Mutie, 54, said the land was given to his father by their grandfather as a family inheritance.

“My father died and left behind his family [them] and his elder brother Stephen Mulinge on this land. It was five acres before it was subdivided. When the land was surveyed after our father’s demise, Mulinge registered the whole as his,” Mutie said

He said when his mother died on June 15, 2008, they started making burial plans, but they received a court order on the sixth day of the preparations not to bury her in the land.

Mutie said the family met elders and they were advised to pursue the matter in court.

He said they went to the magistrate's court in Machakos in 2009.

"The court ruled that we continue living here since it is our ancestral land and those holding title deeds should also stay where they have occupied,” he said.

The court declined to grant them permission to bury their mother in the land, Mutie said.

The family moved to the High Court, which ruled the family had moved to the land after their mother’s demise.

The family later moved to the Court of Appeal, where the case is yet to be heard.

“We have suffered a lot. We are psychologically traumatised,” Mutie said.

He said he does not understand why his mother cannot be buried in the land "yet we buried our cousins, sister and brother in the same land years after our mother’s demise".

Former chief Patrick Kituli said he never heard of any land dispute between the families when he served between 1982 and 2003.