A 52-year-old woman identified as Zipporah Moraa during a court hearing about the control of her late husband’s estate has said she learnt of the existence of a co-wife from a newspaper obituary.
Speaking to an attentive court during the hearing of a succession case that she filed, she told Justice Rachel Ng’etich that her late husband to whom she was married to for 11 years neither introduced her to the second woman nor mentioned her name.
She said:
“I went to read the obituary in a national newspaper and I noticed that a stranger, Elizabeth Mutinda, was also listed as wife of the deceased. That shocked me!”
Moraa accused Mutinda of masquerading as Ngundo’s wife in an attempt to steal her (Moraa’s) inheritance.
Moraa further disclosed that her findings led to her brother-in-law David Mboo whom she says was responsible for the writing of the obituary.
Ngundo died at the age of 48. He was a soldier at the Gilgil Garrison and he died in Entebbe, Uganda, on December 22, 2013, while on his way back to Kenya from a mission in Sudan.
However, Moraa claims she was snubbed as the legitimate wife and excluded from her late husband’s funeral arrangements.
She testified that she was blocked from attending Ngundo’s burial in Makueni County.
She said:
“I was tipped off through a phone call that my brother-in-law had evil plans against us if we attended the burial. The caller, who is my friend, told us that we would be set on fire together with our vehicles if we attended the funeral.”
Asisdes being blocked from the funeral, Moraa said when she sought Sh800,000 to pay school fees of her three children, she learnt that Mutinda had gone to court to block her from accessing the benefits left behind by Ngundo.
“Mutinda filed succession case number 234 of 2014 in a move to block me from getting a share of my husband’s properties, including fees for my children.”
The late Ngundo’s left behind estates in Gilgil town, two estates on a two acres in Kathonzweni, Machakos County, several vehicles, shops and rental houses in Lanet, Nakuru County, as well as money in several financial institutions, including Cooperative Bank.
In her claims, Moraa alleged that her children’s names were recorded as belonging to her co-wife in the list of beneficiaries after she also moved to court to fight for her share of the property.
“Mutinda fraudulently listed my three children as her own in the application for grant of the estate, but she left my name out,” Moraa told the judge.
Denying claims that she had separated from her husband after their civil wedding, she said:
“We had a good relationship with my husband and we never separated or divorced. In fact, we had three children.”
To prove this, she filed a marriage certificate in court that showed she married Ngundo on September 4, 1992 at the Superintendent Registrar’s office in Nakuru.
She wants the judge to identify her as the only legal beneficiary entitled to Ngundo’s estate.
“I want the court to declare me the legal wife, grant me letters of administration of my late husband’s estate and exclude anyone else, including Mutinda.”
Court proceeding is expected to continue on June 8 when Mutinda is expected to testify.
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