'Our marriage had challenges': KCB executive Rosemary Koech’s husband says as court halts funeral

By  Sam Kiplagat

Court Reporter

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• A funeral programme prepared by her family indicated that she was to be laid to rest on August 29 at her parents' home in Chepseon, Kericho County.
• However, Kimwatu moved to court claiming he had been excluded from decisions surrounding his wife's funeral and burial.

A Milimani court has temporarily stopped the burial of a former KCB Bank executive following a dispute between her husband and family over funeral arrangements.

The court issued orders barring the burial of Rosemary Chemutai (also referred to as Rosemary Koech) and directed Lee Funeral Home not to release her body pending the hearing of an application filed by her husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu.

Rosemary, who served as head of data protection in KCB's risk division, died on August 21 at the age of 40.

In the orders issued on Friday, the court restrained her parents, Paul and Beatrice Koech, her sister Judy Koech-Oyamo, and KCB Bank from proceeding with burial arrangements without the involvement of her husband.

"An interim temporary injunction hereby issued restraining the Defendants/Respondents ... from interring and or inhuming the remains of the late Rosemary Chemutai without the consent and/or involvement of the Applicant pending the inter-partes hearing of this application," the court ruled.

The case will be mentioned on August 31 for further directions.

The legal battle emerged just a day before Chemutai's scheduled burial. A funeral programme prepared by her family indicated that she was to be laid to rest on August 29 at her parents' home in Chepseon, Kericho County. However, Kimwatu moved to court claiming he had been excluded from decisions surrounding his wife's funeral and burial.

In court papers, he said he was legally married to Chemutai. The couple wed on August 24, 2013 at St Austin's Catholic Church in Nairobi and had four children.

Mr Kimwatu said he learnt on August 26, while following up on burial arrangements at Lee Funeral Home, that the body would only be released to his sister-in-law, Judy. He argued that the decision was made without legal authority and effectively sidelined him from the burial arrangements.

The widower told the court that although he and Chemutai had experienced challenges in their marriage, they remained husband and wife.

"Our marriage was, throughout its subsistence, a happy, loving and harmonious union characterised by mutual affection, companionship and support. That, as is the case with any marriage, it experienced challenges and the vicissitudes of any married life from time to time; however, the same were never of such gravity, magnitude or persistence as to detract me from the overall love, joy and happiness that defined my union," the widower told the court.

He described their relationship as loving and supportive, saying any difficulties they faced were not unusual in a marriage and did not diminish their bond.

According to Mr Kimwatu, the couple had been separated for about four months before Chemutai's death. He said she had recently expressed a desire to return to the matrimonial home and that he had agreed to the reconciliation.

"Unfortunately, she passed on before she could return home," he said.

Mr Kimwatu maintains that as the surviving spouse, he has the right to participate in funeral arrangements and wishes to bury his wife at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong, in Kajiado County. He told the court that he fears his in-laws may proceed with a burial at a location that would limit his and his children's access to her grave.

"Having not been involved in the burial arrangements, I am apprehensive that my deceased wife will not be given a befitting send-off and further whether our children and I will ever have access to the deceased's grave site," he said.

He added that he had already made arrangements to bury her in Matasia but was concerned that those plans could be overtaken by events.

The dispute has cast a shadow over the final send-off of a woman remembered by family and colleagues as an accomplished lawyer, technology expert and corporate leader.

In a tribute contained in the funeral programme, Chemutai's family described her as a resilient professional who overcame personal and health challenges while building a distinguished career. The programme states that she received treatment at Chiromo Hospital in Nyali and later at Tranquil Medical Centre in Karen before returning to her parents' home in Ngong to recuperate. As her health improved, she moved into her own residence in Ngong, where she died on August 21.

The family remembered her as a high achiever who retook her examinations to improve her grades before pursuing a legal career and eventually becoming an Advocate of the High Court. She later built a career at the intersection of law, technology and public policy, rising to a senior leadership position at KCB.

"She was a colleague, friend, sister and daughter. Most intimately, she was a loving mother," the tribute reads.

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