Kennedy Onyango's burial dispute returns to court after mediation fails
Parents of Kennedy Onyango, Denish Okinyi and Jocinta Anyango. They have disagreed on where their son should be buried.
What you need to know:
- Kennedy’s father, Denish Okinyi, wants him to be buried in his home in Suba South sub-county, while his mother, Jocinta Anyango, prefers Kamasengre in Rusinga Island.
- They were asked to agree on where the boy should be buried, but the talks did not bear fruit.
A case to determine where Kennedy Onyango, the boy who was killed in Ongata-Rongai during the anti-government protests should be buried, will now be decided by the courts.
This is after mediation efforts recommended by a court in Mbita last week to resolve a dispute between the minor’s parents flopped.
Kennedy’s father, Denish Okinyi, wants him to be buried in his home in Suba South sub-county, while his mother, Jocinta Anyango, prefers Kamasengre in Rusinga Island.
They were asked to agree on where the boy should be buried, but the talks did not bear fruit.
The burial was suspended after Mr Okinyi obtained a court injunction from Mbita Law Courts barring Ms Anyango, who had ferried the body from Nairobi to Suba North, from burying.
Mbita Principal Magistrate Nicodemus Moseti would later recommend that the dispute be resolved through an alternative dispute resolution system.
The court-annexed mediation brings together the aggrieved parties and a mediator, who sit down and seek ways of resolving their differences, without involving the court.
When the judiciary introduced the system in Homa Bay, it was expected that it would help to reduce the backlog in courts.
However, it has proven to be one of the toughest methods in solving some cases, since not all issues can be handled by mediators.
A good example is that of the 12-year-old Kennedy, which involves a lot of cultural and traditional guidelines.
Lawyers representing both parties said they would return to court after their clients failed to agree on where the body would be buried.
Mr Hedmod Kobil, who represents Mr Okinyi, described alternative dispute resolution as a defective way of solving cases similar to that of Kennedy.
He said the process is ineffective in disputes involving close family members.
"The system does not rely on strict rules like the courts do. Parties can give views on a matter just like they would talk in a family meeting," Mr Kobil said.
His sentiments were echoed by Mr Humphrey Obach, the lawyer representing Ms Anyango.
"It is difficult to handle cases involving African culture and traditions through mediation because one party can be pushed to accept the decision made by a mediator based on respecting traditions," he said.
Mr Obach said mediation cannot help in such circumstances. Both parties will proceed to court to begin the process afresh.
In an affidavit signed by Ms Anyango, she described her ex-husband's application to the court to stop the burial of her son as malicious, and a waste of the court's time and resources.
She started living with Mr Okinyi in 2001 until 2012 when they separated.
She claimed he abandoned her at home in Kisaku Village and went to live in Sindo.
Ms Anyango said she later left home to go to Nairobi after being sent away.
"Since I had no means of earning a living, I had to leave my children behind with the plaintiff's mother," she wrote in the affidavit.
"I refused to take the children with me, but my firstborn daughter (name withheld) was sent to deliver them to my house in Nairobi. She then went back to Kaksingri to live with her grandmother," she wrote.
The mother said she enrolled Kennedy at Ongata Rongai School for Grade Seven where he was until he died.
According to her, Mr Okinyi abandoned his family and only reappeared when the body arrived in Mbita.
The case will be heard next Friday, August 2.
