Lobby groups stage protest over mysterious bank loan widow told to pay

Women leaders in Mombasa on Saturday staged a protest match along Moi Avenue to voice their support for a woman who is fighting a multi-million shilling case against a bank in Kenya.

The leaders from four organizations, Kenya Muslim Women Alliance, Maendelea ya Wanawake, Ukombozi wa Haki and Friends Women Movement, want the judiciary to speed up a case pitting a 36-year-old businesswoman in Mombasa against the bank.

They believe the woman’s rights were trampled by unscrupulous people working in cahoots with the bank insiders to fleece her of more than Sh150 million.

“The government should stand with women, especially widows, in this country. Women are an important cog in the community and they should be respected and taken care of properly,” KMWA’s Farida Tall said.

The woman was the wife of a prominent Mombasa businessman who died on July 25, 2010.

“It was a big blow to her as she was still very young. It traumatized her because it was their wedding anniversary and were to celebrate it grandly. But the husband went to rest in bed but never woke up again,” Tall said.

It was during that iddah, a four-month-and-ten-days period during which a Muslim woman mourns her husband and is not allowed to marry another man, that she was informed by people who said they were from the bank that her late husband had taken a loan and that it should be repaid failure to which their property will be seized.

During iddah, an important period for Muslim women, their voices are not supposed to be heard or be seen by another man, but the widow was forced to break some of the rules and seek help, according to Tall.

“She was forced to sell off one of their lands to settle the debt, even without seeing any agreement between the bank and her late husband,” Tall narrated.

On June 30, 2011, after the first loan had fully been repaid, she was again informed by people who claimed to be from the bank that her husband had taken another loan and should be repaid.

“Did a dead person resurrect to take a loan?” Tall posed.

She said the widow was forced to go to the Central Bank to seek an audit of her husband’s bank account.

“No document to show a loan was taken was found. Let justice be found for this widow who has no one else to lean on,” Tall said.

Ukombozi wa Haki’s Karama Yahya said it is sad that a widow is targeted by fraudsters to add insult to injury.

He called on the DCI, EACC, the DPP and all other government investigative agencies to ensure the culprits are found and brought to book.

“This widow lost Sh174 million. She is a businesswoman and an investor in Mombasa. Let this issue be sorted and her money traced and returned to her,” Yahya said.

“We trust our banks but if this is what it can do to a widow, then we will lose trust in the banks,” he said.

He called on the Judiciary to ensure justice for the widow is found.

“It has become like a movie. A dead person wakes up from the grave and goes to ask for a loan from a bank and is given the loan,” Yahya said.

Barki Ali, a youth representative, said justice for the widow must prevail or they will be demonstrating on the streets of Mombasa daily.

“The widow is soft-spoken and has children to feed. Her rights must not be trampled on like this,” Ali said.