A Kenyan couple risk a 6-month jail term for burying their ‘deceased newborn twins’ who turned out to be dolls.
The odd case, which nearly resulted in the couple being lynched after their deceit was unearthed, was concluded on Tuesday with a judge ordering the couple to each pay KES 50,000, (about $500) or be imprisoned for six months. The court convicted them of lying to the police.
The couple hit the news last week when their fellow villagers decided to exhume the hastily buried twins, only to find dolls.
The villagers’ decision to exhume was informed by the suspicions they had given the haste surrounding the burial. Burial arrangements are a communal affair, and within the local community, bodies must be viewed before being interred.
In this particular instance, the couple claimed that they had lost their newborn twins, yet no one had actually seen them. Even the events before the ‘birth’ of the twins were suspiciously fast.
About a fortnight ago, the wife had left to deliver at a local referral hospital, where she allegedly gave birth to one of the twins via caesarean section. According to an in-law, she claimed to have been referred to a hospital in Kisumu, some 100 km away. Not long after, she claimed to have been admitted at the national referral hospital in the capital Nairobi, some 360 km away by road. Days later, the couple claimed the children had died.
Days later, the husband, described as a carpenter, is said to have met up with the wife at a local airstrip. Whether this was part of the ruse, or the wife actually flew to this rendezvous is unknown. However, after the two met, they placed the ‘bodies’ in the coffins the husband had brought along, and proceeded to bury the coffins.
Following their arrest, it was determined that the wife was never pregnant.
Why did they do all this?
In their confession to the court, the couple revealed that this was their way of securing the land, whose ownership was being disputed. The graves were to seal their ownership of the land.
As of 2016, 60% of land in Kenya was untitled, leaving it open to such shenanigans.
AFRICA GLOBAL NEWS PUBLICATION
