It's a dog's life for Lillian Kombo in the past two weeks after betrayal by her in-laws and two lawyers following the death of her husband last February.
The 36-year-old widow has been living on the rooftop of a flat she called home in King’orani, Mombasa, praying that it does not rain – she has enough problems with mosquitoes at night.
Her clothes include a leso and two dresses. Other belongings are in a suitcase next to her.
The agent of the house in which she lived with her husband - Naftali Kombo Ogendo - was locked up two weeks ago over unpaid rent.
She owes the agent Sh50,000.
Lillian married Kombo, a successful 63-year-old businessman, in 2006. Kombo owned a security outfit in Mombasa, a 65-seater bus and two 33-seater mini-buses.
He died on February 18 after a short illness. Thereafter things turned south for the widow.
Kombo had been divorced before he met Lilian. He had four children.
Her step-daughter was in charge of the funeral arrangements. She excluded Lillian from the arrangements, saying she does not know her.
“There was no place for me on the bus that was to take the family and the body home for burial. I had earlier suspected there was something fishy due to how my in-laws acted,” she said.
Lillian twice obtained court orders barring the removal of her husband’s body from Pandya Memorial Hospital.
“The second time the people had removed the body and were already at Makande taking it home without my knowledge. The police helped stop the convoy and the body was returned to Pandya mortuary,” she said.
She recalled to the Star that her brother-in-law arrived in Mombasa soon after her husband's death and confiscated all documents of her husband’s companies and vehicles.
She had been in Kitale farming. “When I got home, his brother had taken possession of all the logbooks and the security firm’s vital documents.”
She contacted a lawyer to help her stop the brother-in-law from taking everything belonging to her husband, who was also the chairman of the Mombasa Abagusii Welfare Association.
During the crucial hearing, her lawyer never showed up in court and the case was dismissed.
“I later found out he had had meetings with my brother-in-law’s lawyer,” Lillian recalled.
She filed another case against her brother-in-law through a lawyer she had found through a nominated MCA in Mombasa. He arrived late for the crucial hearing, prompting the court to rebuke her.
“The magistrate rebuked her for wasting the court’s time. She agreed with the assertion by her in-law's lawyer that I am well fed and my child is still in school. This was not true,” the widow told the Star.
Her father-in-law died three weeks ago. During his burial in Kisii, she was assaulted allegedly by her in-laws.
“I was attacked by my in-laws, accusing me of causing them a lot of pain by taking them to court,” Lillian said.
She reported the incident at Nyamarambe police station before returning to Mombasa. On arrival at the house in which she had lived with Kombo, she found it locked.
Lillian has been to the Federation of Women Lawyers of Kenya but has not been assisted.
Her brother-in-law is on the run after Lillian contacted the DCI who have launched investigations against him.
We were unable to speak to him on his known mobile phone number. In the meantime, Lillian is perched on her former house's rooftop, at the mercy of pesky mosquitoes.
