MP Murunga’s alleged girlfriend goes to court to stop his burial

By , K24 Digital
On Wed, 18 Nov, 2020 16:26 | 2 mins read
Late Matungu MP Justus Murunga. [PHOTO | FILE]
Late Matungu MP Justus Murunga. [PHOTO | FILE]
Late Matungu MP Justus Murunga. [PHOTO | FILE]

A middle-aged woman from Nairobi has gone to court to stop the burial of Matungu MP Justus Murunga over claims that the late lawmaker sired her two children.

Agnes Wangui Wambiri filed her suit at the Milimani Law Courts on Wednesday, November 18, claiming she and Murunga were in a 7-year relationship that yielded the two children, a boy and a girl.

"I first met the deceased in 2012, when he was a supervisor at the Embakasi Ranching Company Limited," she said in her affidavit.

Wambiri says she was selling beverages and snacks in Embakasi at the time, when the late MP approached her.

"He told me he was living in Utawala, Nairobi with his wife, Christabel. In 2016, he rented me a house in Ruai, where I lived with my son.

"The deceased used to pay our monthly [house] rent and child maintenance. Mostly, he would send me money via M-Pesa."

The plaintiff claims that Murunga began avoiding her after he won the Matungu parliamentary seat in the August 8, 2017 general election.

"The deceased never wanted the public or his family to learn about the existence of the two children, and, as a result, refused to give me copies of his ID card so that I could process the children's birth certificates. However, after engaging him in a series of talks, he resumed supporting the minors, though in an irrregular manner until his death on November 14."

Wambiri has listed Christabel Murunga and Grace Murunga as the first and second defendants respectively. Also sued, is the Lee Funeral Home (third defendant), which Wambiri is seeking to bar from releasing Murunga’s body for burial until her case is heard and determined.

Wambiri has hired Danstan Omari, through Musyoki Mogaka & Co. Advocates, to represent her in the case.

“That pending the hearing and determination of the instant application, this honourable court be and is hereby requested to issue a temporary injunction restraining the 1st and 2nd defendants, either by themselves, servants, agents or employees, from conducting the burial, interment or cremation, and in any manner whatsoever, dispose of the body or remains of the late Justus Murunga Makokha,” said Wambiri in her application filed under the certificate of urgency.

The plaintiff is also seeking to be allowed to extract the Late MP’s DNA samples for testing, so that it can be proven he was the biological father of the two minors.

“That, in the alternative, this court should order the temporary preservation of the remains of the deceased at the 3rd defendant’s premises until DNA samples have been collected in the presence of the licensed pathologists appointed by both parties.”

Wambiri is also seeking to have the two children incorporated in the Late legislator’s burial plans.

MP Murunga died of diabetes on November 14, 2020 in Mumias, Kakamega County. His remains were transported to Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi on November 15 for preservation.

Wambiri claims there “may be concerted efforts by the 1st and 2nd defendants to lock her and her children out of the burial arrangements and the actual burial event”.