Wednesday will mark the exhumation of the body of a British woman who died at the home of a controversial cult leader while on vacation in Kenya, according to the family’s attorney. Luftunisa Kwandwalla, 44, was visiting the seaside city of Mombasa in August 2020 when she died and was buried the next day, but her family suspects foul play.
According to court documents filed by the family, cult leader Arif Mohamed Iqbal, a self-proclaimed healer, stated at the time that the “devil” had killed the woman as he attempted to exorcise her.
The family’s attorney, Jacinta Wekesa, told AFP that they were on their way to the Mombasa cemetery where Kwandwalla was buried.
Wednesday evening, an autopsy to ascertain the cause of her death is scheduled.
The initial cause of death reported on her government-issued death certificate in 2020 was cardiopulmonary arrest.
In August of 2019, Kwandwalla arrived in Kenya to visit her husband’s relatives. According to court documents, she joined Iqbal’s infamous sect during her stay.
Due to travel restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic, she was unable to return to her home in the English city of Leicester.
On July 27, 2022, a freight train on the Mombasa-Nairobi Railway bypasses the mangroves in Mombasa, Kenya. Dong Jianghui/Xinhua images courtesy of Getty Images
The family requests that police examine Kwandwalla’s “sudden and inexplicable” death, saying that she was buried hurriedly to conceal evidence.
Kwandwalla’s brother, Imran Admani, stated in court documents, “The rushed burial of the deceased without allowing her family members to attend the burial and inspect the body has inflicted agony and anguish to the family, who needs to know what killed her.”
The family claimed that Arif could not explain how the devil had killed their loved one, and described him as “lying and hazardous to vulnerable people.”
A Mombasa magistrate’s court permitted the family to engage a private doctor for the autopsy and ordered police to provide security during the exhumation earlier this month.
Nobody has been apprehended thus far in connection with the death.