NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 29 – The late KCB Bank executive Rosemary Chemutai Koech-Kimwatu was buried at her parents’ home in Chepseon, Kericho County, on Friday night despite a court order issued hours earlier stopping her interment without the involvement and consent of her husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu.
The dispute over her final resting place shifted to the courts, with the parties expected back before Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court on Monday, August 31 despite her interment.
The burial was carried out after the family proceeded with the funeral arrangements, with reports indicating that the court order had not been served on them before the interment.
The development came only hours after Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi certified Kimwatu’s application as urgent and issued interim orders restraining Rosemary’s family, KCB Bank and other parties from removing her remains from Lee Funeral Home or proceeding with her burial without his involvement.
The court had specifically barred the respondents, their relatives, agents and employees from interring or burying Rosemary without the involvement and consent of her husband pending the inter partes hearing.
The orders followed an application filed by Kimwatu after he learnt that his wife’s family had planned to bury her at her parents’ home in Chepseon rather than at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong, Kajiado County.
Kimwatu, who says he married Rosemary at St Austin’s Catholic Church in Nairobi in August 2013, argues that their 13-year marriage and the fact that they had four children gave him a right to participate in decisions concerning her final rites.
He accuses Rosemary’s parents, Paul and Beatrice Koech, and her sister, Judy Koech-Oyamo, of excluding him from funeral committees and preparations following her death on August 21.
The dispute escalated after Kimwatu visited Lee Funeral Home on August 26 to follow up on the burial arrangements and was shown a letter from KCB dated August 25.
According to court documents, the bank’s employment records listed Rosemary’s sister, Judy Koech-Oyamo, and her eldest son, Charles Migwe Kimwatu, as her next of kin.
The letter authorised the two to liaise with the funeral home over the release, collection and burial arrangements for Rosemary’s remains.
The revelation became a key point of contention, with Kimwatu arguing that an employer’s internal next-of-kin records could not override his rights as a surviving spouse.
His lawyers have accused KCB of involving itself in a private family dispute, arguing that employment records identifying a next of kin do not give an employer authority to determine where or how an employee’s remains should be buried.
The bank’s letter, however, was expressly framed around funeral and mortuary arrangements, rather than the deceased’s estate or succession matters.
Kimwatu has told the court that although his marriage to Rosemary had experienced difficulties, including a period of separation lasting about four months, the relationship remained legally intact. He maintains that they had reconciled and that she was planning to return home before her death.
The family’s account, as reflected in the case documents and reports surrounding the dispute, points to deep domestic and financial difficulties during the period preceding Rosemary’s death.
The contention is the question of where Rosemary should be laid to rest and who has the authority to make that decision.
Her biological family had planned to bury her at the family home in Chepseon, Kericho County, where funeral arrangements had been announced before the court intervention.
Kimwatu, on the other hand, wants her buried at his ancestral home in Matasia, Ngong, in Kajiado County.
The court has not yet made a final determination on who has the ultimate right to decide Rosemary’s burial arrangements. The orders issued on Friday were interim measures intended to preserve the situation pending the hearing of the application.
Rosemary was serving as KCB Bank Group’s Head of Data Protection within the Risk Division at the time of her death.
She joined KCB as a Data Protection Officer in June 2022 and was promoted to Head of Data Protection in June 2023, having previously worked in legal, technology, regulatory and financial-services roles.
Her death on August 21 triggered an outpouring of grief among relatives, colleagues and friends, with funeral arrangements initially proceeding without any public indication of the dispute that would later emerge.
The conflict only became public after Kimwatu moved to court, saying he had been shut out of the preparations and had only discovered the identity of the people recognised by KCB as next of kin when he followed up at the mortuary.
