Woman seeks to stop co-wife's burial on husband's property

A woman wants the High Court in Eldoret to order that her alleged co-wife be buried at her kin’s home. 

Testifying before Justice Reuben Nyakundi, Salina Cheruto Kendagor said the deceased, Catherine Jerotich Kosgei, was her husband’s girlfriend and not her co-wife.

The High Court was hearing the succession case of late Kenya Defense Officer (KDF) Barnabas Kipkosgei Kendagor, who is said to have married Jerotich as his first wife and Cheruto (second wife).

Jerotich, 65, died in March and her body has been lying in the morgue following the dispute over where to inter her remains. Cheruto obtained a court order stopping the burial which had been scheduled for March 27.

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She told the court that Jerotich was a stranger to her. Cheruto said that she would not bury a woman that she did not know on her farm in Moiben, Uasin Gishu county. The farm is part of the estate of the late Kendagor.

“I do not know the deceased. I do not know her at all. I am the only widow of the late Kendagor. My husband never married any other woman,” Cheruto told the court.

When asked her opinion about where the deceased should be buried, she told the court that Catherine she should be laid to rest at her parents’ home in Kondabilet.

“Since the deceased was not married, her people should be the ones to bury her. She should be buried by her relatives,” she said.

Cheruto told the court that when she got married to Kendagor in 1981, she learned that he had a son whom he sired with his high school girlfriend, the deceased.

She said that her husband introduced her to Stanley Kiplagat (now deceased) and she took care of him until he came of age. Cheruto told court that although she learned that Jerotich was Stanley’s mother, they had never met before.  

“When I got married, my husband never informed me that he had another wife. He told me that he had a son with the deceased in 1977 when he was in Form Three. When Stanley died last year, we buried him at a section of our farm,” she said.

Cheruto insisted that she only recognises Stanley and Viola Chebet as the only two children that were sired out of wedlock by her late husband.

She disowned Jerotich’s second son, Justus Kosgei, who demanded in his court papers that his mother be buried next to his late brother.

Cheruto claimed that Kosgei was not a biological son to her late husband.

She asked the court to help her evict Kosgei who she claimed had forcefully occupied part of her farm.

The widow, who is the administrator of Kendagor’s estate, further said she had six children with her late husband and she was in the process of including the late Stanley among the beneficiaries of Kendagor’s estate.

“I have not included Viola Chebet in the distribution of my late husband’s estate because my late husband explained that he had already sorted her with the mother by purchasing the two plots in Molo and Eldoret and already built them houses,” she said.

But John Chesang, Kendagor’s stepfather, claimed that Jerotich was married to the late military officer.

Chesang pointed out that since Stanley was buried on the said land without any objection from his stepmother, Jerotich should also be buried next to her son.

He further said that he was surprised to receive the court order stopping the burial process.

“The applicant, having learned of our intention to bury the late Catherine Jerotich, rushed to court to stop the process without a valid explanation. Further, she is aware of the relationship she had with the deceased while she was still alive,” Chesang stated.

Chesang also indicated that being a first wife, Jerotich ought to be buried at her matrimonial home.

“We seek to have the remains of the late Catherine Jerotich at her rightful home as she was the rightful first wife to the deceased Barnabas Kipkosgei Kendagor,” he held.