The various legal hearings this case stretched over more than five months and the final verdict suggested that a Kenyan African was presumed to adhere to the customs of the tribe they were born into unless they clearly and unequivocally broke all contact with it.
However, its account of her ancestor, Waiyaki wa Hinga, has been criticised for attempting to make him a proto-Nationalist and inflating his importance, and her role as a scout and urban guerrilla may have been overstated.
Wambui claimed in her autobiography that he was murdered by being buried alive for opposing the violent seizure of Kikuyu land.
His death was probably caused by injuries sustained during, and possibly after, his arrest and he was buried on his way to detention, whether already dead or assumed to be dying is unclear.
Wambui claimed that this impoverished his family and interrupted his children's education, but his detention was only for four months followed by his reinstatement, after which he cooperated with the Kenyan colonial administration.
She was also involved in the campaign to eradicate the "colour bar" in Nairobi, which designated separate areas in public spaces for Europeans, Asians and Africans.
She states that her eventual arrest in July 1960 for mobilising women for strikes and riots, and her subsequent detention, resulted from a betrayal by her fiancé.
[21] After her release from detention, Wambui joined Tom Mboya's Nairobi People's Convention Party as leader of its Women's wing.
[22] Soon after her release from detention, Wambui met Silviano Melea Otieno, a prominent lawyer of Luo heritage based in Nairobi, and the couple married in 1963.
[26] Soon after Otieno's death, Wambui announced that he would be buried on 3 January 1987 at a small farm the couple owned on the outskirts of Nairobi, according to what she said was his wish.
This was challenged by his brother, Joash Ochieng Ougo, who was his closest adult-male blood relation (as Otieno's sons were juveniles), and Omolo Siranga, the Nairobi representative of the Umira Kager clan.
[36] Wambui claimed his lifestyle made Luo custom inappropriate, and that she was Otieno's next of kin under common law, entitled to deal with his burial as she saw fit.
[38] They also argued that Wambui was not his blood relation and that, not only were his sons were underage, but their Western education and mixed parentage meant that they had not been born and bred in the Luo traditions, so that none of them could contest the brother's right to bury Otieno.
The initial High Court action was Wambui's successful request for a declaration that she was entitled to bury Otieno, and an injunction against clan members' attempts to prevent this.
[42] The evidence that he had attended traditional funerals and participated in their rites and inherited land according to customary law also contradicted the assertion that he had severed all connection with his clan and tribe.
Very little new arose, although Wambui's lawyers argued that she would have the right to bury her husband under the English common law which applied from the time Kenya became a colony.
As she had not been so appointed as there was no will, customary law would apply and he would be buried by his brother the late Joash Ochieng Ougo at his family home.
[44] Wambui alleged that the real issue behind the court battle was Otieno's considerable estate, which his brother hoped to claim as his next of kin in Luo terms, and she argued that his clan had a history of seeking money relating to deceased members.
In an echo of the events of 1987, Peter Mbugua commenced legal proceedings in 2013 on the basis that Wambui lacked the mental capacity to make a valid will.