Written by Joyce Nzomo
The family of the late Mburu Kinani, father to Kiambu Deputy Governor Rosemary Njeri Kirika, is once again divided after his children from the first wife threatened to move to court to seek orders to exhume his body.
Mburu was buried on the night of September 17, 2025, despite an earlier ruling on June 12, 2025, by Magistrate Gerhard Gitonga that directed he should be laid to rest at his ancestral home in Gatanga, Murang’a County, next to his first wife’s grave.
That ruling was later challenged at the High Court by Rosemary Njeri and her siblings Geoffrey Nganga, Alice Wambui, Regina Muthoni, and Patrick Karanja, who said the magistrate had made a mistake in law.
On September 17, 2025, Mburu’s stepchildren went to Kijabe Mission Hospital, collected the body, and buried him secretly at night.
Lawyers Danstan Omari and Stanley Kinyanjui, who represent the first wife’s children, strongly condemned the night burial, saying they were denied a chance to appeal the High Court ruling that gave Rosemary and her siblings permission to bury their father.
They claimed that in their appeal, the stepchildren presented new documents that had not been shared in the magistrate’s court during the first case. Lawyer Kinyanjui said that although they asked the judge to remove those documents from the record, the request was denied.
According to him, the ruling on September 16, 2025, overturned the magistrate’s decision and gave burial rights to the stepchildren. Mburu was buried the next evening at 6 p.m.
Lawyer Omari said they will go back to court to seek orders to exhume the body. He also asked the Chief Justice to issue new rules requiring automatic stay orders whenever a court makes a decision in burial disputes, so families can appeal before the burial happens.
“Mburu Kinani was the father of a deputy governor, a very prominent person. To be buried like a dog at night is against morals and justice,” Omari said.
Mburu died on November 20, 2024, at the age of 92. His death exposed a bitter conflict between his two families over his final resting place.
His daughters from his first wife, the late Wanjiru Mburu, wanted him buried in Gatanga, where they said their parents’ matrimonial home was and where their mother was buried.
But the children of his second wife, Magdaline Mburu, argued that his main home was in Gilgil, where Magdaline was also buried.
