Court orders Mombasa tycoon’s body exhumed in row over cause of death

A Mombasa court has ordered the body of Mombasa businessman Abbas Anverali Nazerali exhumed to establish the cause of his death, amid protests from his widow.

Mr Abbas died on May 15 in the emergency ward at Mombasa Hospital, but his brother Shakir Anwar suspected foul play and reported the matter to the police.

“Looking at the letter from Dr Sam Oula, a medical director at Aga Khan Hospital, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has demonstrated that the events after Mr Nazerali’s discharge from hospital should be subjected to investigations to establish the cause of his death,” Senior Resident Magistrate Vincent Adet said when he allowed the DCI’s application.

He added: “This can only be done by conducting an autopsy on the deceased body, and to succeed in that, the body has to be exhumed to aid in conducting the inquest.”

Mr Nazerali’s widow, Kiran Nazerali, unsuccessfully attempted to block the enforcement of the orders after the magistrate declined to issue another directive suspending the exhumation order pending an appeal that she intended to file.

The widow opposed any attempt to exhume the body, saying the practice is frowned upon in the Muslim community.  

She argued that the practice is against Islam and customary beliefs.

“This request to exhume a deceased person’s body is a radical and extreme step and which should only be allowed if close family of the dead permits. We object to the same. It is our wish that my late husband’s body remains undisturbed, and he retains his dignity even in death,” she said in court papers.

She told the court that her husband died of kidney failure after suffering from an infection and therefore the cause of his death is uncontroverted.

“Given that what killed him is known, what is the exhumation for? The death of my husband is neither surprising nor suspicious,” she said.

But the magistrate noted that several issues pointed out by the DCI called for an autopsy so that the truth about the cause of his death could be known.

The DCI moved to the court to have the body exhumed following a complaint filed by Mr Anwar.

Through state counsel Hillary Isiaho, the DCI said the death called for further investigation.

“To establish the truth, we ask the court to grant the order of exhumation as requested,” said Mr Isiaho.

He said the circumstances leading to the businessman’s death were not clear considering the chain of events that led to his hospitalisation and hurried burial.

Lawyer Michael Oloo, who represented Mr Anwar in the case, said they were not accusing anyone of anything other than establishing the truth.

“That can only be done when the exhumation is permitted,” the advocate said.

Mr Oloo said his client and other siblings were not informed of the death or burial plans and only learned through a family friend that Mr Nazerali had been buried.

Mr Pharis Thoya, from the DCI, said he moved the matter to the court because the tycoon’s family had raised issues about how he handled before and after his death.

Court records show the widow and Mr Hussein Chandu, who were with Mr Nazerali in his last days, disregarded police directives and proceeded with burial plans, raising eyebrows. 

But the court exonerated the woman on these arguments, noting that the police directive was not clear on what was to be done with Mr Nazerali’s body after his death was reported to the police. 

“The letter from the police did not specify whether the preservation was to allow for burial arrangement or for any other procedure.

However, exhumation of the body will only favour the truth,” said the magistrate.  

Ms Nazerali has linked her legal woes to a dispute over who is to inherit the family company, saying this was the cause of her differences with Mr Anwar and that the property tussle had caused bad blood between them.

Mr Anwar and her husband, she claimed, had not been on good terms over the family wealth in Kenya and Pakistan.

The police were ordered to provide security during the exhumation, which the court said the widow is free to attend.

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