Renowned educationist Professor James Waithaka’s daughter-in-law and her four sisters-in-laws are in the middle of a multimillion-shilling land dispute.
Mary Muthoni Gitau filed a case in Kiambu alongside her two children seeking to stop the four sisters from taking over her late husband’s property.
The 10-acre piece of land is said to be situated in upmarket Tigoni area and is valued at approximately Sh500 million.
Prof Waithaka is a pioneer educationist and a former director of education while his late wife Joan Waithaka was also a top educationist who was a principal at Alliance Girls High School for 15 years.
Muthoni has sued Waithaka’s daughters Margaret Waithaka, Catherine Karekezi, Ann Waithaka and Angela Kirigwi whom she claims want to disinherit her.
Muthoni says her late husband David Gitau was given the land by his father Waithaka after their marriage in 1985 as a gift to them.
“James Waithaka personally bequeathed and gifted the land in Tigoni to his wedded son whereon erected was a colonial house which they occupied used and lived in as their matrimonial home,” reads court papers.
Through lawyer Ngonyo Munyua, Muthoni argued that her late husband was the only son of Prof Waithaka and his late wife Joan Waithaka.
The widow said if the court did not intervene she was likely to lose her matrimonial home that she has called home for years.
She managed to secure temporary orders against her sisters-in-law barring them from dealing or subdividing the land pending hearing of her case.
Kiambu Magistrate Wilson Rading restrained the four sisters from alienating, entering, trespassing or subdividing the land in Tigoni.
Muthoni has also accused her late husband’s sisters of threatening to occupy the said land.
“All was well after my husband’s death in December 2017 until February this year when my sisters-in-law invaded the land and attempted to stop my children from developing a portion of it for commercial farming,” Muthoni says.
Muthoni further claims that she has informed Waithaka who gifted them the land and he is not in support of what his daughters are doing.
Due to his advanced age of 91, the widow filed a separate law suit seeking for the courts order to assess the mental fitness of his father-in-law so that he can testify in court
Last week Justice Mary Kasango allowed the application by Muthoni and suspended the property dispute case until they know Waithaka’s mental state.
She wants him to appear in court and testify if he indeed gifted the disputed land to his late son so the medical report will help the court ascertain if he is medically sound to give evidence.
