The dispute over the burial site of the late Mburu Kinanu has now reached the court of appeal.

This is after his first family filed a notice of appeal at the Court of Appeals challenging the decision of the High Court delivered on 16th September 2025 allowing the second family to bury him.

Through lawyer Danstan Omari, the first wife’s children, Ides Wairimu Mburu, Joyce Muthoni Mburu, Hannah Wanjiku Mburu and Anthony Kinani Mburu pray that their appeal be allowed.

The family wants the court to issue an order that the body of the deceased, Mburu Kinani, be released to them for interment at his ancestral home in Gatanga, Murang’a.

They also want an order of exhumation to be issued if need be.

According to court documents, the learned Judge erred in law by misapprehending and misapplying the repugnant to morality qualification of customary law vis-à-vis the relationship between the deceased and the appellants.

 The appellants accused the judge of holistically denying the appellants justice and the right to bury their biological father.

Kinani’s children further claim that the judge erred in law by making a finding that the deceased was estranged to them while at the same time making a finding that the estrangement was between the deceased and the appellants’ mother.

“The learned judge erred in law by making a finding that the deceased was estranged to the appellants with no tangible evidence produced to support such a finding,” Omari stated.

In addition, the appellants claim that the judge erred in law by relying on documents not produced by their maker without sufficient cause being advanced as to their admissibility in absence of such original testimony

They also accuse the judge of not appreciating that the dispute before the court was between biological children and step-children of the deceased and not between previously deceased wives of the deceased

High Court judge Hellen Namisi delivered the judgement in favour of the second family’s children – Geoffrey Ng’ang’a Mburu, Alice Wambui Mburu, Rosemary Njeri Kirika, Regina Muthoni Mburu and Patrick Karanja Mburu.

The judge allowed Kinani who died on 20th November 2024 to be buried at the home he shared with his second family in Gilgil and not Gitanga where his parents and first wife are buried.

She also ruled that both families had a right to participate in the funeral arrangements and burial ceremony.