In death, as in life, some people just cannot take a break. For British tycoon Harry Roy Veevers, what should have been a peaceful final rest has turned into a never ending family feud played out on the sun-drenched coast of Kenya.
It has been 11 years and the theatre of war is still boiling. At the heart of the saga is a web of suspicion, the lack of a Will, and a family torn in two.
It all started on Valentine's Day in 2013, when the 64-year-old from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, died at his Mombasa home. He left behind a sprawling property portfolio, but no Will, a void that would soon be filled with legal battles and deep-seated animosity.
Veevers had lived in Kenya for over three decades with his second wife, Azra Parvin Din, and their two daughters. Just a few days after his death, his sons from a previous marriage flew in from the UK, expecting to say their final goodbyes. What they found instead was a family drama that would keep them in court for over a decade.
Tensions kicked off almost immediately.
According to court testimony, the sons, Richard and Philip Veevers, arrived on Saturday, February 16, the day before the planned burial, to find a visibly agitated Parvin Din. Philip told the court he was initially denied access to his father's body, and the family's claim that he had died of a heart attack didn't sit right with the brothers.
The next day, when they finally saw the body, Richard was unsettled by what he saw. He described redness on his father's face and lips that appeared "purple and pink."
Fueled by suspicion, Philip took several pictures of the body, which immediately sparked a confrontation. The daughters from Veevers's second marriage reportedly demanded the photos be deleted, and tensions boiled over.
In stark contrast, Alexandra Veevers, one of the daughters, told the court that she did not see any marks on her father's body. And that she only saw the face since the body was wrapped in a cloth. Alexandra and her sister, Hellen, claimed the brothers refused to share the photos and videos.
Amid the rising mistrust, the most pivotal decision was yet to come. The court heard that Din had decided to bury her husband without a post-mortem or even notifying the authorities. She maintained she believed it was unnecessary to inform the police and, following Islamic tradition, arranged a swift burial.
The speed, and the religious rites, raised further questions. The sons claimed their father had not been a practicing Muslim and alleged he had been buried under a different name.
The brothers' suspicions soon turned legal. They questioned not just the burial process, but the very circumstances of their father's death. Was it really a natural death? Why the secrecy?
The court proceedings became as dramatic as a television series, with reports of Hellen and Alexandra being reprimanded by a magistrate for shouting that a witness was lying. At one point, Hellen emerged from the courthouse with a message written on her vest-top: "My daddy was not murdered".
In a stunning turn of events, a magistrate ruled in January of last year that Veevers's death was not suspicious, but the case was immediately reopened after the sons successfully challenged the ruling at the High Court.
Now, after years of legal wrangling, the dispute has reached an unimaginable impasse: where to bury a man who has spent 11 years in a morgue.
No custom
The courts in Mombasa recently declined to decide on Veevers' final resting place. The sons, Richard and Philip, want to bury him in the UK, while his daughters, Hellen and Alexandra, want him buried in Mombasa. The sons have accused their stepmother and sisters of poisoning their father.
In a ruling dated August 13, 2025, Senior Resident Magistrate David Odhiambo expressed the immense difficulty of the decision.
"Oh Roy, son of Ruth Veevers, you left us confused, but we won't disappoint you; just wait!" he said.
Odhiambo noted that Veevers did not belong to any particular Kenyan custom and had not left a Will. There was no evidence to suggest he had a sour relationship with any of his family members, making the decision quite nerve-wracking. "It is a tough decision that someone has to make anyway," said the magistrate.
He expressed hope that the British tycoon would finally "find rest in eternal peace" but declined to interfere, urging the family to seek a resolution in another legal forum.
The inheritance dispute, a separate but equally thorny issue, is still pending in another court.
Roy's case is not an isolated incident. The magistrate noted that many families have been caught in similar burial storms.
In June this year, for instance, Senior Principal Magistrate Peter Ndege ruled in favour of widow Jeniffer Kemuma, allowing her to bury her late husband in Nakuru despite fierce opposition from her brothers-in-law who demanded a Kisii burial under custom.
Back in 2010, then Chief Justice David Maraga had made it clear: a spouse usually has the strongest right to bury their partner, though the wishes of the deceased also matter.
The bigger problem, however, is a legal one. As Magistrate Odhiambo pointed out, Kenya lacks a comprehensive legal framework for handling burial disputes. The only existing law, Section 137 of the Penal Code, makes it a misdemeanor to unlawfully hinder a burial.
This legal vacuum often forces courts to rely on common law principles and judicial precedent, even using customary laws.
For example, in the Luo community, an adult man's burial place is often dictated by his clan's traditions, regardless of his personal wishes.
Similarly, in Tugen customary law, a man must be buried by his father and family at his ancestral home.
The magistrate also noted that courts can consider the proximity of the deceased to the disputed parties.
"Accordingly, the right to bury a dead body can only be conferred to the person who is able to demonstrate the closest proximity to the deceased," Odhiambo said.
Another factor is the relationship between the deceased and the person seeking to bury them. The magistrate argued that someone who mistreated the deceased while they were alive should not be allowed to bury them.
"It means that the mistreatment of the deceased while alive by a litigant negates his or her customary right to bury her or him," he argued.
For 11 long years, the body of Veevers has lay in cold storage in Mombasa not out of neglect, but because of a bitter family feud that has turned grief into courtroom drama.
With no Will, no clear customs, and no end in sight to the family's bitter fight, it seems Veevers's body will remain in the morgue for the foreseeable future, a tragic symbol of a dispute that has no clear winner.