Kenya this week concluded a decade-long investigation into the death of Harry Roy Weavers, a British property tycoon. Kenyan authorities expressed hope that Weavers, after spending 11 years in the morgue, would finally “find eternal rest.” But the businessman’s death still leaves many unanswered questions.
In this case, there were allegations of murder by poisoning, burial under an assumed name in a Muslim tradition, a tense legal battle, and the exhumation of the body nearly a year after burial. In the end, the case divided four siblings – two sons from the late businessman’s first marriage and two daughters from his second.
At one hearing, the judge reprimanded sisters Hellen and Alexandra for exclaiming that the witness was lying and should be penalised cars should be handed over to the family given that the two sides have been at war since 2013,? – Francis Kinyua Kamundi, who is representing Mr Weavers’ sons, Richard and Philip, said.
Author photo, Standard Newspaper
From the outset of his detailed 95-page judgement, the judge recognised the deep-rooted animosity between family members.
“While the death of a loved one often unites family members through grief,” the court judgement said, “the emotions associated with death can also divide them.
The most recent thing that happened.
“What happened shortly after his funeral divided the family and marked the beginning of a legal drama,” Justice Odhiambo said.
On one side of the case were his sons and on the other side was Mr Vivers’ second wife, Azra Parveen Deen, along with their daughters.
The children lived in the UK while they lived rsa Valentine’s Day 2013 at his home in Mombasa where he had long settled and had a large property portfolio. When the children learnt of his death, they travelled to Kenya.
The drama began the moment they arrived. That was on Saturday, 16 February, the day before the funeral.
According to Richard Weavers’ testimony in court, his father’s widow, Parveen Dean, was agitated when she was questioned about the deceased. His brother Philip also told the court that she had initially refused his request to view his father’s body.
Parveen Dean herself stated that her husband died of a heart attack.
When the brothers finally saw their father the next day, Richard, according to court records, said he “noticed his face was flushed and his lips were purple and pink.”
Tension seems to have been heightened by Parveen Din’s reaction she didn’t know she should have reported it.
The Islamic burial, carried out quickly in accordance with tradition, further fuelled suspicion amongst his sons, who claimed their father was not a Muslim and was buried under an assumed name.
Author photo, Standard Newspaper
According to court documents, Richard Weavers “asked why their father was being buried as a Muslim although he was a Christian and was told that if he was buried in an open cemetery, people would dig him up and steal the gold from his body.”
At the same time, Parveen Deane testified that Mr Weavers had converted to Islam.
The brothers also accused Parveen Dean and her daughter of poisoning their father in order to inherit his rich property portfolio, which they vehemently denied.
Another difficulty with the case was that there seemed to be none. 0:33)In a final ruling this week, the court said that “due to the level of decomposition” of the body during exhumation, it was too difficult to say what caused the man’s death.
“The cause of death of the deceased remains unknown and therefore no one can be prosecuted on any charge,” the judge said.
Over the years, the case has passed through the hands of numerous investigators and judges who have tried to cut through the fog of inconsistencies and delays to find the truth.
Justice Odhiambo noted that when the case was opened, he had just started his law practice and read about it in the newspapers, “having no idea that for almost a decade I would be presiding over this case.”
Last January, the investigation was coming to an end – after years of hearings by magistrates. i. Citing procedural irregularities, the case was returned to the magistrates’ court, allowing the sons to present new evidence.
Mr Odhiambo drew attention to other issues that plagued this “convoluted case”, including conflicting forensic reports filed by various pathologists.
One pathologist found the “highly toxic substance” cyhalothrin on both the remains of the body and the soil from which it was exhumed.
Getty Images photo
But the judge said this evidence was questioned because the samples arrived in the UK four months after the exhumation and they were not in the containers in which they were originally packed. Two other pathologists on the case found no trace of the toxic substance in their samples.
The experts showed us that there could be different in other ways.
The doctor who first helped Mr Weavers should have advised Mrs Parveen Dean to inform the authorities of her husband’s death and insist on an autopsy, the judge said.
He noted that Dr Salim Omar’s failure to do so contributed to suspicions about the circumstances of the death. The doctor has since faced a disciplinary investigation by the medical regulator over the way he handled the case.
As for Parveen Dean, the judge said she did nothing or did not do anything. enough to hold her responsible for Mr Weavers’ death.
Yet despite the finality of the judgement, the end result is that a body that has been in the morgue for more than 11 years remains in a state of legal limbo, sandwiched between irreconcilable siblings.
And it’s not a choice either side would have made voluntarily.
The sons have argued all along that their father was a British citizen and should be buried in the UK, while his second wife and her daughters wanted him reburied in Kenya.
The court found that determining Mr Vivers’ final resting place was “nerve-wracking” because there were no formal statutory provisions governing burial disputes in Kenya.
It was also a “difficult” decision because Mr Vivers did not adhere to certain “confirmed that he had a poor relationship with any of his close family members so as to deprive anyone of the right to claim his body”.
The court said it did not want to interfere with who the body would be given to, but urged family members to seek legal redress elsewhere. It also noted that the inheritance dispute was still pending in another court.
It looks like Harry Weavers’ long wait for “eternal rest” won’t be ending anytime soon.