What was meant to be a final farewell to Rosemary Chemutai Kimwatu instead became the latest chapter in a bitter family dispute after she was buried despite temporary court orders obtained by her husband, Kevin Migwe Kimwatu.
The disagreement centred on where Rosemary should be laid to rest, with her husband and her family taking different positions. Kevin wanted his wife buried at their home in Matasia, Ngong, in Kajiado County, while her parents and sister had planned to take her body to the family home in Chepseon, Kericho County.
Rosemary, also known as Rosemary Koech, died on August 21, 2026, at the age of 40. She was the Head of Data Protection in the Risk Division at KCB Bank Kenya Limited.
Her body was taken to Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi as preparations for her burial began.The dispute became more serious after Kevin claimed that he had been excluded from the funeral arrangements. In court documents, he said he married Rosemary in 2013 at St Austin’s Catholic Church in Nairobi and that they had four children.
Kevin also disclosed that the couple had been living separately for about four months before her death. However, he told the court that they had agreed to reconcile.His concerns were heightened after KCB, in a letter dated August 25, identified Rosemary’s sister, Judy Koech-Oyamo, and her son, Charles Migwe Kimwatu, as the next of kin listed in its records.
The two were authorised to handle the release of Rosemary’s body and burial arrangements.
Kevin subsequently moved to the Milimani Commercial Magistrate’s Court on August 26, asking the court to stop the planned burial and give him a role in determining how his wife would be laid to rest.
On August 28, Senior Principal Magistrate Agnes Mwangi issued temporary orders stopping the removal of Rosemary’s body from the funeral home and directing that she should not be buried without Kevin’s consent.
The court also ordered that the application and the orders be served on the respondents.But by then, the burial arrangements were already well advanced.
Rosemary was scheduled to be buried on August 29, leaving little time between the issuance of the orders and the planned ceremony.
Her body was later released from the funeral home and the burial proceeded, despite the temporary orders obtained by Kevin.
The development has now brought the question of service to the centre of the dispute. Kevin managed to obtain court orders, but it remains important whether those orders were properly served on the people expected to comply with them before the burial took place.
That issue could become significant when the case returns to court for further directions on August 31.
For Rosemary’s relatives, the legal intervention came too late to prevent the burial. She has now been laid to rest, but the disagreement over who had the right to make decisions concerning her final resting place remains before the court.
