NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 29 – The parents of late KCB executive Rosemary Chemutai Koech have explained why they proceeded to bury their daughter at night, despite a court order seeking to stop her interment at their family home in Chepseon, Kericho County.

📻 Breaking It Down

Speaking during a memorial service for Rosemary, her mother, Beatrice Koech, said the family was determined to give their daughter the dignity they believed she deserved and provide a place where her four children could easily visit and mourn her.

The burial on Friday night came hours after the Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court issued interim orders stopping the interment without the involvement and consent of Rosemary’s husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu.

The dispute had centred on where the 40-year-old KCB Bank Head of Data Protection should be buried, with her husband seeking to have her laid to rest at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong, Kajiado County, while her parents wanted her buried at their home in Chepseon.

📌 What You Need to Know

But speaking during the memorial, Beatrice said the family had chosen to lay Rosemary to rest on their land because they believed it offered her children a place of comfort and connection with their mother.

“We are very excited that we have managed to give Chemu the dignity that she deserved and lead her to rest where she will continue to rest happily and where she will be cared and loved together with her children,” she said.

Beatrice said that while Kalenjin traditions recognise that a married woman belongs to the family into which she was married, she believed there was also justification for Rosemary to be buried at her parents’ home.

“In Kalenjin, we know that the children belong to where she was married but it is also okay for Chemu to be buried where she received comfort, where her children can come when they are not very comfortable or when they feel they are missing their mother,” she said.

She said the decision was informed largely by the welfare of Rosemary’s children, arguing that they should have the freedom to visit their mother whenever they missed her.

“They say, ‘We want to go where our mother is.’ If those children were to receive what Chemu was receiving on the other end, where would they run to if we buried Chemu there,they would think there’s nobody else ?” she asked.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya