Woman opposes sharing property with her co-wife

The battle for control of a deceased tycoon's multi-million-shilling property is far from over.

This is after his first wife filed an application to have the ruling reviewed, days after the court settled the case and gave a sharing formula.

Joyce Opisa is against sharing her husband's property with her co-wife, in the ratio of 3:2, saying the woman had deserted the husband for over 10 years.

Opisa wants the execution of the orders issued by High Court Judge William Musyoka stopped until her appeal is heard.

Opisa accuses her co-wife of violence, saying that on July 2018, Christine Nafula invaded her home and destroyed crops and desecrated her two children's graves. She further wants her co-wife’s appointment as a co-administrator to be revoked and her place filled by someone else apart from her son James Baraza.

Justice Musyoka had directed that the property be distributed in the ratio of 3:2 in Opisa’s favour since she has eight children while Nafula has five.

Deserted husband

Under a certificate of urgency, Opisa said she married Samuel Amanaka in 1968 before he married a second wife in 1972.

She, however, disclosed that Nafula deserted the husband after she moved to the US in 2004 and only resurfaced after Amanaka’s death in October 26, 2015.

Through lawyer Kennedy Otanga, Opisa has accused her co-wife of meddling with the property including her 0.5 hectares matrimonial land leaving her with a paltry 76 square metres for cultivation.

“The second petitioner (Nafula) did not take care of my ailing husband during sickness. She never contributed to the hospital bills and only returned in 2015 from her refuge, ostensibly to fight over my husband’s property and to restore marital or conjugal relations with a dead husband,” Opisa said.

The two are seeking to control more than Sh5 million in form of shares in 10 leading firms, money in eight banks and prime lands in Nairobi and Vihiga counties.