Kenya's Court of Appeal gave S.M. Otieno's body to his brother and clan over his widow's objection, and he lay unburied for 140 days

Silvano Melea Otieno, a prominent Nairobi lawyer, was pronounced dead on arrival at Nairobi Hospital on 20 December 1986. He left no will. His widow, Virginia Edith Wambui Otieno, planned to bury him at their matrimonial home in Upper Matasia, Kajiado District, near Nairobi. His brother, Joash Ochieng Ougo, and Omolo Siranga of the Umira Kager clan wanted him buried at his ancestral home, Nyamila village in Nyalgunga, Siaya District, as Luo custom required. Justice Shields first granted the widow an injunction. The Court of Appeal set it aside. After a trial, Justice Samuel Bosire ruled in February 1987 that Otieno had wished to be buried beside his father's grave at Nyalgunga. He ordered the body handed to the brother and the widow jointly for burial at Nyamila under Luo customary law. On 15 May 1987 the Court of Appeal, Nyarangi, Platt and Gachuhi JJA, dismissed her appeal. It held that the Luo burial custom was not repugnant to justice and morality, and that years away from his ancestral home did not free Otieno from Luo customary law. His body had stayed in the mortuary for 140 days. He was buried at Nyamila on 23 May 1987^†. Kenya still has no statute on who may bury the dead, and courts cite the case in burial disputes. Wambui Otieno died in 2011.