The late Tob Cohen’s sister, Gabrie Van Struaten, on Wednesday stormed out of Chiromo Mortuary after clashing with his widow, Sarah Wairimu.
Wairimu rejected Van Struaten’s demand to have her brother’s body released for burial after the autopsy was conducted.
Struaten said she wanted to bury her slain brother this week at a Jewish cemetery, but Wairimu, through her lawyer Philip Murgor, wrote to the Chiromo Mortuary management to have the body kept there until her case is concluded.
As his wife, she argued, the Constitution grants her the right to give her husband a decent send-off.
Wairimu also refused to sign the postmortem form as an identifying witness, claiming she only saw the body.
Following the disagreement, Struaten stormed out of the Chiromo Mortuary.
Wairimu’s lawyer said he will write to the Registrar of Deaths to ensure that Cohen’s body is released only to his client, and not the sister.
She claimed that Struaten has lo legal right to take her brother’s body, let alone bury him.
“It’s not our client who must get a court order to bury her husband, to the contrary it’s her sister who doesn’t stay in Kenya who must get an order from court,” said Murgor in his letter.
The widow was charged with her husband’s murder last week but is yet to take plea.
The High Court ordered her to first undergo the mandatory mental health test for suspects in murder cases.
But the court remanded her at the Lang’ata Women’s Prison until September 26, when she will take the plea and her application to be released on bail heard.
Additional reporting by Sheila Mutua.
