A widow has sued a city businessman for using professional stamps of her husband who died over a decade ago to change directors at a tea factory in Murang'a.
Winnie Wairimu claims Kirubi Kamau presented documents to the Registrar of Companies for change of directors at Central Highlands Tea factory sworn on June 11, 2019, by Mburu Mbugua who passed on 11 years ago.
Through lawyer Odemu Savwa, Wairimu says her husband Mbugua died in 2008 and did not commission the documents nor did she give authority for Kamau to do so.
In court documents it is alleged Kamau is in charge of several companies including being the chairman of Tamarind Valley Embakasi Ltd, director at Rype Ltd, Fries Ltd and Chambers Garden Ltd.
He is also alleged to be the board vice chair of Central Highlands Tea Ltd based in Murang'a that is now at the centre of this dispute.
Wairimu claims that in February, she saw articles in local dailies saying her husband was at the centre of a vicious directorship war at a tea factory.
“The manner in which Kamau acquired the professional stamps of the deceased and went ahead to use them was clearly intended to cause irreparable damage to the widow by insinuating that she was using her late husband’s stamps to make a living,” suit papers say.
She accuses Kamau of unlawfully using her late husband’s stamps in a bid to lie that he was still alive in June 2019 when the alleged commissioning took place.
She wants the court to find that the act of using the professional stamps of the late Mbugua by Kamau was malicious and intended to cause her disrepute.
She further wants an order directing him to publish a suitable apology in three major newspapers for using the stamps unlawfully.
She wants his other companies to produce any particulars of documents lodged at the Registrar of Companies for inspection.
Wairimu also wants general damages for emotional distress and suffering Kamau has caused her as a result of using her late husband’s stamps illegally.
“I have received questions from my family, friends and church members regarding this alleged conduct of wanting to gain by using the professional tools of my late husband and they now doubt my stand and reputation, which has caused me untold suffering and misery,” Wairimu says.
According Wairimu, Kamau’s acts twisted facts and lied that the husband who was the commissioner for oaths had commissioned documents on June 11, 2020 that had been presented to the Registrar of Companies for change of particulars in Central Highlands Tea Company.
“Kamau’s conduct was tinged with malice and portrayed as the truth that Mburu Mbugua was still alive as at the date on which the affidavits were sworn. This was intended to disparage, belittle and injure my emotional stability, character and reputation as a mother and mourning widow,” read court papers.
The widow says the conduct by Kamau of document commissioning using her late husband’s stamps was both reckless and malicious in the extreme and was intended to inflict maximum emotional stress and suffering on the plaintiff and her family.
Wairimu claims the actions by Kamau have subjected her to public hatred, ridicule and contempt, adding that she had been degraded and embarrassed in her a capacity as a mother and mourning spouse.
She claims that Kamau has for the past 11 years been benefitting from proceeds of the professional instruments of the late advocate.
Edited by Henry Makori
