Woman sued by ailing son risks detention for contempt

A mother alleged to have deserted her bedridden son risks being jailed for disobeying orders issued by a court in a succession case.

Last week, the court found Esther Wangari and her daughter Susan Nyambura guilty of contempt of court for refusing to produce a list of assets left behind by her later husband.

In the case, Harrison Njuguna said he discovered only three years ago that his father owned a vast estate and her mother and sister had sold almost everything.

He claims that in 2012 after he was admitted to hospital following the robbery that left him disabled, his mother took his original documents, including identity card, passport and driving Licence.

Njuguna suspects that the mother was using his ID card to fraudulently transfer his father’s estate to third parties. He, therefore, sued his mother and sister for failing to disclose to him what his father left behind. He is confined to a wheelchair and claims he does not know where his mother lives. He has been relying on well-wishers to survive even though his late father left a vast estate.

His father, James Kariuki, was a university lecturer. He died 19 years ago when Njuguna was in Form 2. His property was to be held in trust by Wangari for herself and the two children. However, Njuguna says his mother and sister secretly sold the property and deserted him in the family house in Buruburu Phase II after disconnecting water and electricity.

He said he was abandoned without care, yet they know quite well that he cannot cook, sit, stand or walk and needs someone to change his pampers and urinal pipes. His health and safety are now in the hands of good Samaritans, who visit him occasionally to turn him in bed, donate food and change his clothes and pampers.

The estate included the Buruburu home, several acres in Kiganjo and their ancestral land in Lari, Kijabe. He claims that out of the 27.3 acres of arable land, the two have sold about 19.4 acres without his knowledge and used the proceeds to meet selfish ends.

In his ruling, Justice Aggrey Muchelule noted that Wangari and her daughter’s conduct was not of people who wanted to comply with court orders.

“I find the respondents jointly guilty of contempt of court orders. They will appear personally in court in February 2020 to show cause why they should not be punished in accordance with the law,” he said.

Justice Muchelule noted that Wangari, in disobeying the orders to supply the documents in court, claimed that her son had chased her away from the house and that’s where she left the documents. 

“Their explanation is neither reasonable nor plausible. Their action not to comply with the orders was deliberate and willful.”

In May last year, Justice W. Musyoki issued orders directing  Wangari and the daughter to prepare and produce within 45 days a full and accurate inventory of the assets the deceased left behind and those they had sold, supported by appropriate documentation. The judge noted, however, that the orders were made in June last year and the contempt of court in March this year — about a year later.