‘Dead’ man walks to court in battle over Sh40m land

Kimani Mungai. [File, Standard]

A man reported to have died years ago showed up in court yesterday seeking to be enjoined in a Sh40 million land case.

The court had been furnished with the death certificate as “proof” that Kimani Mungai was dead, when he filed an application saying he had been notified by a buyer of his land, Agnes Kagure Kariuki, that there was a court case.

Ruth Wambui Kimani, who claims to be Kimani’s wife, had told the court that he died nine years ago.

Wambui had filed a case over the piece of land in Makadara that she stated she could not inherit because she realised it had been transferred to Kagure.

She filed the case against Kagure on August 7, last year. In the case, she claimed she was an administrator of the estate of Francis Kimani Mungui alias Kimani Mungai, who died on October 26, 2010.

In her case, Wambui stated that while she was consolidating her husband’s estate, she was shocked to find that the land in Makadara had been transferred to Kagure for Sh10 million.

She also claimed the transfer was effected on October 7, 2015, five years after the death of her husband.

She accused Kagure and registrar of lands of forging her “dead” husband’s signatures and colluding to steal his estate.

Yesterday, Kimani confirmed that he transferred the land to Kagure on July 30, 2015.

To buttress her case, Wambui filed a death certificate obtained from Limuru, and which indicated that her 64-year-old husband died of blood pressure. She also bore succession documents from Kiambu Magistrates Court.

According to lawyer Stephen Nikita, Kimani was the original owner of the contested property, which he transferred to Kagure. The lawyer said Kimani was alive.

Court papers in the case filed by Wambui indicated that she was married to Kimani in 1968. But Kimani denies this, stating that in 1968, he was barely nine-years-old.

Kimani said Wambui was a stranger to him, as he was married to Alice Kimani, “who lives in the USA”.

According to the case files, Wambui got letters of administration of Kimani in 2011.

But Kimani’s lawyer stated that his client was “not even aware that he is dead” and that there was a case over the property he sold.

“The applicant was notified of the existence of the suit herein by the first defendant (Kagure),” he states.

In her case, Wambui claimed her “husband” Mungui alias Kimani Mungai bought the land some time in 1997 from Kimemia Engineering Construction Limited and that it was transferred to him on May 26, that same year.

Incidentally, Kimani claims he bought the land from the same company, the same year, and that it was transferred on the same date stated by Wambui.

Kimani refuted claims that he bore with Wambui 11 children, as she claims in her suit. Kimani pointed out that the case referred to a Mungui while his name was Mungai.