• The sum was initially Sh12 million but has accrued interest of Sh7,119,587.
• Mbogori has never paid the said amount and recently filed a case in court seeking to be declared bankrupt.
Image: THE STAR
A businessman who has failed to pay up Sh19 million awarded by the court to a widow whose husband he killed will spend the next six months in jail.
Deputy registrar of the High Court Wandia Nyamu committed Albert Mbogori to civil jail for failing to pay the money.
The sum was initially Sh12 million but has accrued interest of Sh7,119,587.
Wandia said Mbogori did not demonstrate he was unable to pay. “He has not come to court with clean hands,” the deputy registrar said.
A warrant of arrest against Mbogori has been in force since August last year.
The businessman was arrested last week and taken to Kilimani police station.
Mbogori shot and killed Benjamin Edward Rahedi in a road rage incident on December 1, 2007.
Court records indicate that Rahedi had just left a club in Ongata Rongai and was shot near the Bomas of Kenya, following a minor accident.
He died in hospital three months later. Mbogori was subsequently found guilty of manslaughter and jailed for 14 months.
Rahedi’s widow Violet Jeptum Rahedi later filed a case seeking damages for loss of dependency and expectation of life.
She successfully argued that Mbogori negligently fired the bullet from a gun, leading to her husband’s death.
Justice Hatari Waweru ruled that Mbogori was liable for Rahedi’s death and awarded the widow Sh12 million.
But Mbogori has never paid anything. He recently filed a case in court seeking to be declared bankrupt.
His petition was rejected by Justice James Aaron Makau in February. He went under the police radar soon after.
The judge had ruled that Mbogori failed to fulfil the requirements set out in bankruptcy proceedings.
“I am not satisfied that the petitioner has demonstrated his inability to pay the sum due to the creditor,” Makau said.
A bankruptcy verdict is meant to protect genuine people who have unfortunately found themselves in debt, “but not fraudsters or conmen”, the judge ruled.