US Court allows Kenyan father to exhume body of daughter buried in US
A US court in Texas has given full rights to a Kenyan father Mr David Ong’era to exhume the body of his daughter Dorothy Bosibori Ong’era who died under mysterious circumstances and have a postmortem conducted to determine the cause of her death.
The ruling by Texas probate court Judge, Brooke Allen, concluded the long-running case in which two families have been feuding over the exhumation and handling the body of a Kenyan mother of six who died under controversial circumstances last December 17, 2020.
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At the same time, Judge Allen ordered Mr Obadiah Kinara, who had strongly resisted the exhumation of Dorothy Ong’era’s body, to pay $39,700 (Sh4.3 million) as costs of the litigation.
The judge also dismissed an application from Mr Kinara who wanted the hearing postponed without providing any convincing reasons.
Judge Allen said Mr Kinara who did not appear in court and was not represented did not provide valid reasons to warrant any further delay of the case.
Mr Kinara whose absence at the hearing gave Mr David Ong’era, Dorothy’s father, an opportunity to formally prove his case without opposition.
When the matter came up for hearing yesterday morning Mr Ong’era informed the court that he was the right and proper next of kin to be given the remains of his daughter for the postmortem and decent burial.
The judge ordered that Mr Ong’era shall take possession of his daughter’s body once it’s exhumed and that he had the authority of the court to bury it wherever he wished.
During yesterday’s hearing, the deceased’s husband, Dennis Mose, testified from Nakuru, Kenya, via Zoom and informed the court that he was legally married to Dorothy with whom he had three children before she relocated from Kenya to the USA.
Mr Mose denied claims by Mr Kinara that he and Dorothy had divorced in Kenya. He told the court that his relationship with Dorothy remained that of a married couple in accordance with the Gusii customary laws of marriage, even after she cohabited with Mr Kinara.
Mr Mose told the court he had no problem with Mr Ong’era being granted the remains of Dorothy for a postmortem and organise burial befitting his deceased wife.
On whether there was divorce between him and Dorothy, Mose said the claims were an imagination by Mr Kinara and described the court order that was presented before the court in Texas as a criminal forgery intended to perpetuate a lie.
Mr Ong’era, a former High School Principal in Kenya and a retired official of the defunct Electoral Commission of Kenya, moved to court seeking orders to exhume his daughter for a postmortem to determine what caused her sudden death.
Mr Ong’era also wanted the court to grant him the right to accord his daughter a decent burial after Mr Kinara secretly buried her without involving the parents who also live in Texas.
Mr Kinara opposed Mr Ong’era’s petition, arguing that he (Ong’era) lost his rights to act as the next of kin for his own daughter after she was allegedly married to Mr Kinara.
During the hearing, Mr Ong’era told the court that Mr Kinara was not married to his daughter and that there had never been any divorce between Mose and the deceased.
Speaking to the Nation on phone, Mr Ong’era described the outcome of the case as a victory for his deceased daughter “who was secretly buried like a wild dog.”
“As I have stated before, my interest in this whole issue is to know what caused the sudden death of my daughter. I am sure that if Kinara cared about finding the truth, he too should be interested to know what killed Dorothy, unless he knows something all of us do not know and refuses to share the same with us for closure,” said Mr Ong’era.
Source-https://nation.africa/
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US Court allows Kenyan father to exhume body of daughter buried in US