A woman has moved to court to seek recognition as the legitimate daughter of the late Johnson Matheka Nzioka, who died in a car accident on February 16, 2025.

Catherine Ndanu in a suit filed at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Nairobi, accuses her stepmother, Ruth Kyengo, and Lee Funeral Home of excluding her from the funeral arrangements for her father.

Ndanu, through her lawyer Muturi Andrew, demands to be acknowledged as Nzioka’s daughter and to be included in the plans for his burial, scheduled for February 28, 2025.

She argues that despite her father’s lifelong support for her even after his separation from her mother in 1999 she has been shut out of the funeral preparations.

In her suit, Ndanu states that her mother, Ann Mule, married Nzioka in 1991 under Kamba customary law and they established their matrimonial home in Thika.

The couple lived there for eight years before separating in 1999.

Ndanu was born on August 24, 1997, and her father continued to support her and her mother, both financially and emotionally, until his death.

After the separation, Nzioka remarried Ruth Kyengo, the defendant in this case.

Nzioka died in a car accident in February 2025, and his body is being preserved at Lee Funeral Home in Nairobi and she has been denied access to even viewing the body.

Ndanu was dismayed to learn that her father’s burial scheduled for February 28, 2025, would take place at his rural home in Machakos County without her involvement despite her repeated efforts to participate in the arrangements. 

Since Nzioka’s death, Kyengo and other family members have been organizing the funeral in Nairobi without including Ndanu.

Kyengo and other family members have gone as far as claiming that Ndanu is not Nzioka’s daughter and is not entitled to take part in the funeral arrangements.

“My father always supported me, both financially and emotionally, and he introduced me to Kyengo and the rest of the family as his daughter,” Ndanu says in her court documents.

“Despite this, I’ve been completely excluded from any discussions about his burial, causing me deep emotional pain.”

Lawyer Muturi emphasizes that Ndanu’s exclusion from funeral planning has also caused unnecessary psychological distress.

“She has tried all means and ways including using the burial committee to reach out to the Kyengo in order for her to allow them to work together and give her father a decent send-off as she verily believed that dialogue should resolve any issues in conflict if at all but Kyengo has remained adamant and aloof,” the lawyer stated.

Ndanu is now seeking several court orders, including one to compel Kyengo to recognize her as Nzioka’s daughter and allow her to participate in the funeral arrangements, including delivering a tribute during the burial ceremony

Second, Ndanu is asking for an injunction preventing Kyengo from proceeding with the burial without her involvement.

Ndanu remains determined to honor her father’s memory.

“I want to give my father the respect he deserves, and it is my right to be involved in his final arrangements,” she said.

The court is expected to rule on the matter before the planned burial on February 28, 2025, in Machakos County.