19/05/2023
*Yunia Oseko burial saga: Family now wants KCB to act against employee*
A Nyamira County family is now seeking the intervention of Kenya Commercial Bank CEO to have an employee of the bank release monies he mobilized for the burial of one Yunia Bochaberi Oseko, whose remains have been lying at Umash Funeral Home since September 2020 due to a ‘land dispute’.
The family, through Patrick Ondieki Oseko, who is the eldest son of the deceased’s has written a letter requesting that KCB heps to get their brother - Joseph Ngala Oseko, one of the managers of the bank to surrender an yet-to-disclosed amount of money which he had collected from the public and wellwishers towards the burial.
Kurunzi understands that Joseph Oseko has been against his mother’s burial citing a land dispute but now his elder brother says the bank must intervene and have the money that was collected relinquished for the mother to be interred on 9th June.
Currently, the mortuary bill stands at just over KSh1.5 million while Meridian Equator Hospital is supposed to be paid a total of KSh620,000 for hospitalization expenses.
“We have now set the date for my mother’s burial for 9th June 2023 with the hope that (my brother) Joseph Ngala Oseko will surrender the monies under his custody (and in compliance with the court orders dated 1st April 2021) but I am apprehensive that, going by his conduct and proven arrogant demeanor, he will not cooperate; hence my resolution to seek this intervention as one of the ways to have my mother’s remains finally interred for us to have closure over her demise,” reads part of the letter addressed to KCB CEO Paul Russo from Patrick Oseko.
The letter dated 15th May and copied to Safaricom and Banking Fraud Investigations Unit, among other institutions, further reads: “I am apprehensive about (my brother) Joseph Ngala Oseko as expressed herein based on how he has resorted to maligning and attacking everybody that has sought to have him surrender the said monies yet we cannot mobilize any other funds from well-wishers knowing too well that there had been money contributed for the same purpose which has not been spent.
“My brother’s continued non-declaration and surrender of the monies that he received in the name of offsetting my mother’s funeral expenses amounts to obtaining money by false pretense which is a criminal offense for which he should be brought to justice.”
On 1 April 2021, Senior Resident Magistrate A. N. Ogonda, in MCC/E5211/2020, directed that the deceased be buried and that one of her sons - Joseph Ngala Oseko - the KCB bank manager uses the money he had collected through his MPESA number to offset all hospital and mortuary expenses but that order has not been complied with.
Instead, Mama Yunia’s body has continued to lie at the Umash Funeral Home in the guise of a non-existent court injunction despite an earlier order against the interment following a suit filed by one of the deceased’s sons - Robert Kebaso Oseko, having been set aside by the April 2021 directive.
It is understood that Kebaso is a proxy litigant acting on instructions and bankrolling by Joseph Oseko, who works as a senior manager with KCB.
“All efforts to have my mother’s remains interred have been thwarted by (my brother) Joseph Ngala Oseko, who has used all manner of unscrupulous, krass means, including but not limited to, blackmail,
intimidation and abuse of his position as a Senior Manager with Kenya Commercial Bank; a situation which is no longer tenable as my mother’s stay at Umash Funeral Home is a continuously traumatizing
ordeal.
“[...] My brother - Joseph Ngala Oseko, a Senior Manager with Kenya Commercial Bank, has a well-known history of litigation on family land matters by proxy.”
Lumumba is asking the Government of Kenya , KCB management and the Kenya Human Rights Commission, among others to take up the matter and ensure the family gets justice against Ngala, who according to the family, views himself as invincible due to his privileged position as a bank manager.
The letter is also copied to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Kenya Bankers Association.
