Sepulchral rights are rights which are given to the most immediate member of the family or person who was living with the deceased.
According to city lawyer Shadrack Wambui, these immediate family members are given the right and privilege of interring, burying or deciding the place of burial of the deceased.
Wambui says a Nairobi court on March 28, 2024, through Magistrate Gitonga has now domesticated what is called sepulchral rights in a landmark ruling.
In the case, the court release a Meru man’s body that is being fought for to the second family using the said rights that are used in Nigeria.
Wambui further says that this are new rights because in our current constitutional dispensation, the law does not tell us what we should do with the deceased person.
“The bill of rights we have are for the ‘living people’. For us now to marry this rights or bring them in tandem to our constitution, we look at article 45 on the question about the right to family,” Wambui added.
It is his opinion that if someone has been living as husband or wife of the deceased person, they are given the first priority which is the sepulchral rights.
