The death certificate of one of the two Friesian cows at the center of a dispute between a woman and another woman must be produced, according to a court decision in Nakuru.
On August 28, 2020, a DNA test was conducted on Ruma and Lelgina after Gloria Kandie and Ann Cherotich asserted ownership.
Ruma was eight years old and Lelgina was nine years old. Kandie, the person in charge of the two cows, told Senior Resident Magistrate Emmanuel Soita on Friday that Lelgina had passed away.
But Soita noticed that the DNA story about the cows was popular in both traditional media and social media, and that their ownership had turned into a matter of public concern.
Soita ordered Kandie to produce the cow’s certificate of death within the next three weeks as proof that it died. He adjourned the hearing of the case until the certificate is filed.
He asked Kandie whether she had informed the police of the cow’s passing because he knew it was a delicate situation, but she said that she hadn’t.
Kandie, Cherotich, a herder, Rongai Sub-County Veterinary Officer Peter Ngugi and the OCS had been lined up to testify.
The case filed by Kandie had been dismissed last year by Senior Principal Magistrate Charles Ndegwa but she revived it.
Kandie sued Cherotich in 2020 when she was ordered to surrender the cow on September 22, 2020, at Baraka Police Patrol Base in Ngata, Rongai sSub-County in Nakuru. This was after the DNA test results concluded Cherotich was the owner of the cows.
The DNA process involved checking the dentition, tail switch, and general body marks to determine their age.
Police failed to determine ownership physically and recorded the women’s account of how the cows were dehorned, skin patterns, and dentition and compared them with the veterinary report.
In the results, Ngugi said Cherotich’s description of the cows matched the DNA test results.
However, in her case, Kandie said she bought the cows from two people at a combined price of Sh215,000 and named them Ruma and Lelgina. She rubbished the DNA test result. The case will be mentioned on July 31.
