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Court: Former GSU boss to rest in peace

NAIROBI November 17 – An attempt by a woman to have the body of former General Service Unit (GSU) Commandant Charles Kimurgor exhumed has been rejected by the High Court.

Esther Jelagat had sought permission to get DNA samples from the late Kimurgor’s body following the disputed paternity of a five year-old boy but this was turned down by Justice David Onyancha on Monday.

Justice Onyancha ruled that Ms Jelagat – who claimed to have borne the child with the former GSU Commandant – had failed to convince the court about her allegations.

“The applicant has failed to establish a case against the deceased and therefore this application is dismissed with costs to the respondents,” Justice Onyancha ruled.

Ms Jelagat had wanted the High Court to order exhumation of the late Kimurgor’s body to obtain DNA samples to ascertain her son’s paternity.

She claimed to have cohabited with the deceased in Nairobi’s Fedha Estate and Silver Springs Hotel and in Kapsoya, Eldoret since 1999 until his death in October 2005 and bore the child during the relationship.

Mr Kimurgor’s widow Helen Kimurgor and her four daughters (they had been named as respondents in the case) through lawyer Katwa Kigen however opposed her application citing numerous grounds among them the lack of jurisdiction by the court to order exhumation.

The court however held that it had overriding powers and would be at liberty to order exhumation in the interest of justice.

During the case, it was argued that Ms Jelagat had produced fake birth certificates, which the court observed that indeed the authenticity of the documents ‘created doubt about the place of birth of the boy’.

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Justice Onyancha also noted that the birth certificate did little to aid the case and held that there wasn’t a persuasive case to warrant an exhumation order.

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