Drama as parents of boy killed in Rongai protests clash after judge grants burial rights to mother

There was drama at Mbita Law Court on Friday during the ruling of a case concerning a 12-year-old boy who was killed during anti-government protests, when one of the parties in the case objected to the court's decision.

Police had to use tear gas to disperse a group that attempted to oppose the court's decision regarding the burial dispute of Kennedy Onyango.

Mbita Principal Magistrate Martha Agutu ruled that the boy's body should be handed over to his mother, Jacinta Anyango, for burial in Kamasengre, Rusinga Island.

However, some relatives who accompanied the deceased's father, Denish Okinyi, to court opposed this ruling and tried to disrupt other court proceedings.

Security officers stationed at the court had to call for reinforcement from Mbita Police Station, who removed the disruptive relatives.

In the judgement, the magistrate stated that the plaintiff, Okinyi, despite marrying Anyango in 2001 and living with her in Kisaku village, Suba South Constituency, had abandoned the boy after separating from her in 2012.

The magistrate also ruled that Okinyi failed to provide the court with evidence that he had legally married Anyango under customary Abasuba law.

Okinyi had earlier informed the court that he had given six cows as a bride price to Anyango’s family, but he failed to produce a witness to testify to this.

Families clashed when one of the parties in the case objected to the court's decision. (Barack Oduor)

Agutu further ruled that although Okinyi was the biological father of the deceased, he had abandoned him and his other siblings after separating from their mother, leaving them under the care of their grandmother and uncles, who provided for their needs.

The magistrate concluded that Okinyi had no right to claim the boy in death when he had abandoned him in life, despite being his biological father.

The court ordered that Kennedy's body be handed over to his mother for burial at her matrimonial home in Kamasengre village, Rusinga Island, where she had remarried after separating from Okinyi.

It was further ordered that Anyango’s current husband should coordinate Kennedy's funeral preparations with Okinyi (the biological father), and that the deceased's family were free to participate in the funeral arrangements and burial.