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A dispute has emerged over who should bury Joyce Mwende, a mother of two, who was shot dead alongside her one-year-old son last week on Tuesday.
The row over the burial is pitting Mwende’s parents, a section of the Mwingi Muslim community, and her estranged husband.
Until her brutal death at the hands of her alleged lover, a prison warden at Waita GK prison, the thirty-year-old was a practicing Muslim.
According to the father of the deceased Davida Ngui, Mwende converted to Islam about five years ago after she wedded a Muslim and relocated to Wajir County. The union brought forth a daughter, now aged six.
Ngui, who has been holding meetings with Muslim representatives said the family could not release the body as his estranged husband had not completed her dowry.
Manzi noted that he has no objection to his daughter being buried in line with Islamic traditions as long as she is interred at his Waita home.
Until her brutal death, Mwende was a practicing Muslim. Photo Courtesy
On Sunday, the Muslim community – believed to be working with her estranged husband – prepared a grave at the cemetery located on the Mwingi–Garissa Road ahead of the burial.
According to his estranged husband Hussein Adam, Mwende was his legal wife and he had paid her dowry completely. Hussein noted that on Saturday during the family meeting, he was granted permission to bury his wife together with her one-year-old son and take his 6-year-old daughter with him.
The body of Mwende, together with that of her one-year-old son, is still lying at Mwingi Level Four Hospital mortuary where a post-mortem is expected to be conducted today on Monday.
The suspect in her murder, David Kimani Nduati, is expected to be arraigned at the Kitui High Court on May 24.
Nduati is reported to have sneaked from his work station on Tuesday night to his house where he allegedly opened fire on his girlfriend and her son, killing them on the spot. Her elder daughter, however, managed to escape and is currently living with her grandparents.
After committing the crime, the warder is reported to have turned himself in and handed over the killer weapon, a G3 rifle.
*Courtesy*
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