Widow dismisses women in property feud
The widow of a former senior Kenya Forest Service (KFS) officer Elijah Murkomen Kitum has dismissed claims that her late husband had other families after two women came out demanding shares of his multi-million shillings estate.
Georginah Mbithe Kitum, a retired employee of Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) told Justice Reuben Nyakundi of Eldoret High Court that the two women who have filed joint petitions demanding shares of the deceased’s properties together with their five children were not her co-wives as they claim.
The mother of four children told the court that she was the legal wife of the deceased and their children whom she said are the only beneficiaries to his estates spread across three counties of Uasin Gishu, Elgeyo Marakwet and Trans Nzoia.
The properties which are at the centre of legal dispute between the widow and two women include more than 10 prime plots in Eldoret, Kitale and Nakuru towns, pension funds, savings in saccos, shares in blue chip companies among them Kenya Airways, KenGen and cash in various banking institutions.
She dismisses as misplaced and false claims by the two women namely, Novene Lagat an employee with the Postal Corporation of Kenya and Lily Kanji, a businesswoman in Eldoret town that they were the wives of the deceased.
According to the widow, the duo are total strangers to her stating that at no time in their more than 25 years in marriage did her late husband ever introduce or mention to her about the two women as her co-wives.
The deceased who was formerly KFS Zonal manager for Teso Conservancy in Western Kenya died through a fatal road accident that occurred along the Webuye-Eldoret highway on the night of February 8, 2013.
Not being maintained
The widow in her court documents avers that the two women were not being maintained by the deceased prior to his death through the tragic road accident noting that their application to be recognized as beneficiaries of his estate lacks merit.
“They are just out to derail the cause of justice as nobody in my late husband’s family knows them. I came to know about them after the death f my husband,” she told the court.
She added:” I was a senior civil servant and with income and all the estate was solely acquired by our combined efforts though the same was registered in the name of the deceased and two women have no claim to the entire properties.”
But in their rejoinder, the women claimed that they were married to the deceased and that he used to cater for their children’s school fees, food, house rent and other necessities.
They said that they attended all burial meetings for the deceased that were held at Wagon hotel in Eldoret and even attended the burial ceremony alongside their children that was held in Kamendi Farm, Trans Nzoia County.
They dismissed as false, assertion by Georginah that they were strangers to her and the deceased family, noting their late husband had even introduced them to his parents and other relatives.
“I got married to the deceased in 1998 to the deceased while working with the postal corporation of Kenya at Timboroa workstation where he was also stationed as KFS zonal manager,’ stated Ms Lagat.
She said that they were blessed with three children who are all known to the deceased family members. On her part, Ms Kanji said they knew each other in 1998.
