Court halts burial of top State lawyer
What started as a petition for divorce over alleged witchcraft and adultery is now turning into a long-winding burial dispute pitting the family of the deceased against his estranged wife.
A Nairobi court waded into the dispute between the late Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Fredrick Ashimosi, and his estranged wife Purity Nyawira Mureithi, and temporarily halted the burial.
Chief Magistrate Edgar Kagoni issued the orders restraining Ashimosi’s relatives — led by Elikana Sakali Shitambasi and Jennifer Mwinamo Shitambasi — from burying him in their ancestral home in Shinyalu, Kakamega county.
“A temporal order of injunction is hereby issued restraining the Chiromo Funeral Parlour from releasing the body of Ashimosi to Sakali and Mwinamo for burial,” magistrate Kagoni ruled.
This followed a suit filed by Nyawira, who claims to be the only legitimate widow of the deceased. She states that they have two biological children together.
Nyawira claims that the deceased’s family has conspired to lock her and their two children out of the funeral and the burial arrangements.
The prosecutor’s body was found in his house in Buru Buru estate, Nairobi, on July 25, 2022. The cause of death is yet to be established.
“Sakali and Mwinamo have purported to conduct and proceed with the burial plans at the deceased’s Shinyalu family home with complete exclusion of the applicant, the legal wife of the deceased, and their biological children,” said lawyer Danstan Omari who represents Nyawira.
Bury her husband
The wife, who had earlier filed a divorce case against Ashimosi, now wants the burial delayed so that she can be allowed to bury her husband at their matrimonial home. “That the final rites and resting place of the deceased … be at their matrimonial home in Shinyalu Constituency, Kakamega County,” Omari stated.
“As a result of the respondents’ actions and utterances, the applicant has been subjected to brutal and vicious attacks from the mainstream and social media regarding the cause of her husband’s death, eliciting social stereotypes,” states the court papers.
Nyawira is also seeking restraining orders on her in-laws, and the Officer Commanding Buru Buru Police Station, from making unfounded allegations and speculations about the prosecutor’s death.
She is also seeking to bar family members of the deceased from interfering with his properties, house and household items.
According to Nyawira, since December 12, 2009, she has been the only legally wedded wife of Ashimosi, who died recently in his house at Pioneer Estate, Nairobi. She adds that after the wedding, they lived together in Nairobi — cumulatively for 20 years — cohabiting as wife and husband, together with their three children, one of whom died in 2006.
Nyawira claims that before her husband’s death, they lived in a six-bedroom matrimonial house No. 433 at Diamond Park 1 Estate, Likoni Road, off Mombasa Road in Nairobi.
“The applicant and the deceased had a pending marital dispute and, subsequently, an ongoing court case in the Chief Magistrate’s Court at Nairobi. The matter is yet to be concluded, denoting that the two are still legally married,” lawyer Omari told the court while seeking orders to stop the burial.
Last Friday, another court postponed the judgment on the divorce case until the burial is conducted.
Witchcraft claims
The prosecutor, prior to his death, filed a divorce suit accusing his wife of being a witch and a devil worshiper who wanted to sacrifice him for material gain.
He claimed he had been forced to desert their matrimonial home and sleep in hotel rooms after his wife, who is also an advocate of the High Court, allegedly unleashed evil spirits on him, making him suffer a stroke.
These claims came after his wife filed a divorce case over allegations of cruelty, desertion, adultery, infidelity and irreconcilable differences.
“During the subsistence of the marriage, the respondent has been and is guilty of cruelty and violence against me and his actions have caused me great mental anguish and torment, including physical scars on me,” said the petitioner.
However, the prosecutor denied the allegations, saying it was the wife who had been creating problems in their house.
Their differences got so bad that the couple told the court they had not spoken to each other since 2019.
Before his death, Ashimosi had handled cases such as the Sh8 billion Karen land saga in which former Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu had been implicated.
He also led a case against five people involved in grabbing Miwani Sugar company’s Sh 2.3 billion land in Kisumu.
and in the prosecution and appeals relating to quashing of charges against former Roads Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau, arguing that the decision will affect more than 100 cases worth Sh 16.9 billion.
The late state prosecutor also handled the case in which Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and his nominated counterpart Sonia Birdi was charged with creating a disturbance before a Naivasha court in 2020.
“On or around March 13,2016, I was in the house together with my wife in the sitting room when she received a call from a man who was waiting for her on the road in the estate. I then tried to enquire who the caller was as a result of which a quarrel ensued between us and as she was walking to her bedroom, a flower pot fell on her leg slightly injuring her,” said the prosecutor.
He recalled that during the month of October, 1999 he met the plaintiff, who was then 19 years old and a first year student at University of Nairobi.
“We dated until December 2001 when we commenced leaving together as a couple,” said the prosecutor.
“We were blessed with three children and that in the year 2008, I commenced traditional marriage rites whereby we negotiated and agreed on a dowry of Sh 1 million and five friesian heads of cattle for which I paid Sh 500,000 and two heads of cattle in October 2008 and the balance was stagnated which I have since settled in full,” he said.
He told the court that the petitioner’s father demanded that he refunds Sh 500,000 which he had sold his land to pay her fees which he paid in full in 2008.
The prosecutor said that on December 12,2009 they celebrated holy matrimony at Friends International Centre Ngong Road ,before solemnizing their traditional nuptials into a statutory marriage under the repealed African Christian Marriage and Divorce Act, Cap 151 of the Laws Kenya.
“Before the said marriage during our cohabitation we separated on three different occasions during which the petitioner took advantage and carried away all the household items to her rural home in Nakuru and she would return empty handed every time we re-united for us to restart life a fresh,” said the prosecutor.
He said that after solemnizing their marriage, they lived happily until the petitioner opened a law firm in April 2016 and started earning her separate income when problems started bedevilling their marriage.
The officer stated that he was posted to another station outside Nairobi, but when he was transferred back, he discovered strange things as the wife used to lock her room throughout while inside and outside.
Alarmed by what was happening to him, he ran away to his rural home where the village pastor disclosed to him that demons, evil and satanic spirits had been casted into his body by a person close to him.
“She is a devil worshipper and she worships a deity and is widely engaged in satanism and demonology,” said the prosecutor.
Their differences got so bad that the couple told the court that they had not spoken to each other since 2019 and that the only time they spoke was when when quarrelling.
Before his death Ashimosi had handled cases such as the she 8 billion Karen land saga in which former Lands Cabinet Secretary Charity Ngilu had been implicated.
Ashimosi also led in the prosecution of five suspects involved in Sh 2.3 billion Miwani Sugar land grab in Kisumu and in the prosecution and appeals relating to quashing of charges against former Roads Cabinet Secretary Michael Kamau, arguing that the decision will affect more than 100 cases worth Sh 16.9 billion.
The late state prosecutor also handled the case in which Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter and his nominated counterpart Sonia Birdi was charged with creating a disturbance before a Naivasha court in 2020.
