The family of an 80-year-old widow from Lioki village in Githunguri,Kiambu County, is making an urgent appeal to the Judiciary to intervene following an eviction order issued against them by a local court. The family claims the ruling was delivered without due process and alleges collusion by their advocate.
Mary Wanjiru, who has resided on the ancestral land left by her late husband for over 60 years, expressed shock upon discovering that express court orders issued on July 31 gave her family 90 days to vacate—a deadline set to lapse at the end of October.
Wanjiru revealed that despite paying all required legal fees, their lawyer failed to inform them of the ruling.
Speaking tearfully from her home, Wanjiru—a mother of ten—recounted marrying her late husband, Delefino Ngugi Karanja, as his second wife in 1965.
She joined her co-wife at the homestead and was allocated her portion of the land. In 1972, Mr. Ngugi married a third wife, who joined the family with four children. The late husband subdivided the 2-acre property among the three wives, granting each approximately three-quarters of an acre, where they lived peacefully for decades.
According to Wanjiru, disputes arose in 2008, four years after the death of her husband, who is buried on her compound.
The third wife began demanding a portion of Wanjiru’s plot, claiming the initial division was unfair. The conflict escalated in 2023 when land surveyors, accompanied by police officers, attempted to forcefully subdivide the property—an attempt that was temporarily thwarted.
The matter was subsequently brought before the Githunguri Law Courts. Wanjiru noted that her efforts to secure legal representation were repeatedly hindered, stating that multiple lawyers abandoned her after receiving their fees, without offering any explanation.
“We have never even been summoned to the Chief’s or District Officer’s (DO) office for the Land Control Board,” Wanjiru stated. “The only notifications we receive are summonses from the Githunguri DCI office, though we have never been charged with any offense.”
Wanjiru’s children, who all reside within the same compound, expressed deep anxiety over the impending deadline.
They called on the Law society of Kenya (LSK) to investigate the conduct of the advocates involved, noting that the family has exhausted its financial resources on legal fees and now faces imminent displacement. The distress has significantly affected the health of the ailing matriarch.
Neighbours corroborated the family’s presence on the land over the decades and condemned the situation, accusing unscrupulous brokers and certain relatives of trying to dispossess the family of their only home.
Efforts to obtain a comment from the third wife and her family regarding the allegations were unsuccessful. She declined to be interviewed, stating only that the court had issued a binding decision and that the family must comply with the order to move out.
