Former MP Cyrus Jirongo ordered to pay Sh4m to crash victim widow

NAIROBI, KENYA: Former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo has been ordered by the High Court to pay a widow over Sh4 million for an accident that caused the death of her husband 12 years ago.

Jirongo had been sued by Tessie Kariuki, a mother of three who accused him and his driver, Saul Lumbasi, of negligence in the accident that resulted in the death of her husband Daniel Gitau.

Gitau, 45, succumbed to injuries after the accident along the Kipkaren area on the Eldoret/Webuye Highway in January 2002. Tessie said her husband was the sole breadwinner for the family and ran a successful business that had 14 employees.

In her testimony before Justice Hatari Waweru, Tessie said her husband managed a business known as Airfield that engaged in making juices and bottled water.

FAMILY AWARDED

Justice Waweru ruled that indeed, the family wholly depended on Gitau and agreed with the proposition that he had an income from his juice and bottled water business; from which he was able to sustain himself, his wife and three children.

"He was educating the three children. He appears also to have been deriving an income from his farm. Doing the best that I can with the inadequate materials placed before the court, and bearing in mind that the deceased's income should have been subject to taxation, I will assess the deceased's monthly income at Sh40, 000," the judge said.

The court awarded the family for pain and suffering, loss of expectation of life, funeral, general and special damages.

The judge, however, deducted 20 per cent from the total award for contributory negligence.

Jirongo was therefore ordered to pay Sh4.1 million together with the costs of litigation. Jirongo, however, absolved himself of blame and said the negligence should solely be attributed to Gitau.