A woman and her son are battling to defend ownership of a parcel of land they allegedly received as a gift from a businessman she claims was her husband.
Ms Margaret Wairimu Muraya, 68 and her son Simon Chege Muraya, 28 are battling nine counts of fraud and forgery of ownership documents relating to a 37 acres parcel of land in Bahati, Nakuru County.
The said land belonged to Mr Peter Muraya Chege, who died on September 9, 2017, at the age of 92.
Their arrest and prosecution after the death of Mr Chege followed a complaint lodged by Mr Muraya’s children who accused them of forging documents in a bid to defraud the family of the parcel of land.
Ms Wairimu claimed the businessman had given her the land as a gift which she had to pay Sh5 million in return as an appreciation.
Appearing before Nakuru Principal magistrate Ruth Kepha, Mr Joseph Gaturo Muraya, the son of the deceased who claimed to be his business partner said Ms Wairimu had turned up at his office three days after his father’s death with a sale agreement.
The document was in relation to a purported sale of the 37-acre parcel to Ms Wairimu and her son Chege by Mr Muraya, a transaction made on August 15, 2017.
However, Mr Gaturo denied having knowledge of such an agreement despite being the custodian of his father’s properties and documents.
According to him, his father had 10 children and was not aware whether Ms Waitrimu was his step mother or Mr Chege his brother.
The court heard that Mr Gaturo only knew Ms Wairimu as their neighbour and his father’s business partner.
“After the death of my father I became the custodian of my father’s property. He had not told me of any transactions nor any other family that he had. I only know that Ms Wairimu and my father operated a bar together,” said Mr Gatutro.
Another witness who took to the stand identified as Mr John Muthee Ngunjiri said Mr Muraya used to confide in him of all his dealings but had never informed him of another family.
Mr Muthee said the family of Mr Muraya informed him of the sale agreement that had been presented to him by Ms Wairimu which were suspicious.
He said he realized the agreement had many suspicious information including lack of passport photograph signature by the seller. He said details of the copy of the ID card attached to it were different from his fathers and as well as different death certificates.
“I came to the conclusion that the document was not authentic and decided to report the same to the police for clarification. The Directorate of Criminal investigations launched investigations and discovered that they were forged,” said Mr Muthee.
According to the charge sheet Ms Wairimu and Chege made false documents namely sale and transfer agreement between them and Mr Muraya purporting to purchase 38 acre of land at Sh 5 million.
The defendants through their lawyer however put a task to explain the relationship between them and their father. They claimed to be a widow and son to the deceased.
