Ex-Mungiki leader to bury wife after paying dowry
The wife of former Mungiki leader Maina Njenga will now be buried after he paid bride price last Friday.
Ms Grace Wairimu and Mr Njenga’s driver and cousin Mr Dickson Mwangi will finally be buried in Theria village, Ng’arua, Laikipia County, after the bride price was accepted.
Ms Wairimu’s mother, Elizabeth Nyambere, a popular Kikuyu gospel musician, gave the go-ahead after receiving the dowry. Mr Njenga said burial arrangements have started.
“We have police authority from Laikipia West and they have assured us of security,” Mr Njenga said on Saturday.
UNKNOWN PEOPLE
Ms Wairimu was killed alongside four others in a shootout by unknown people on May 24 on their way to Nyahururu for a family function. Mr Njenga was also seriously injured in the incident.
On Saturday, Mr Njenga’s elder brother Njoroge Kamunya said: “Our families have agreed on all burial arrangements. We have paid the dowry and been given the go-ahead.”
Mr Njenga said the choice for the rural home was reached by the family after considering the logistical nightmare that they would face if the burials were done in Kitengela.
Residents of Kitengela had opposed their burial there, saying members of Mr Njenga’s church were the cause of insecurity and land grabbing in the area.
LEGALLY ACQUIRED
Mr Njenga went to court seeking authority to bury his wife on the land which he asserted he legally acquired. However, the court urged the parties to consult.
“Elders were sent here and we talked and agreed. But we could not go on with the burial because I was still nursing gunshot wounds. The family decided I recover first,” he told journalists on Saturday.
In 2008, his first wife and mother of three children, Ms Virginia Nyakio was killed alongside two other men on Lang’ata Road in Nairobi.
Her body remained at the mortuary for almost a year before she was buried at their Kitengela home.