A couple is fighting over a multi-million-shilling home in Nakuru City and two others in Lanet and Bahati.
After meeting in the United States, love blossomed and the two university lecturers got married in 1990 and started their journey of life together.
The couple later relocated to Nigeria, where they worked as university lecturers in various institutions of higher learning in the west African country, but would invest their rewards back home in Kenya.
However, after 20 years and three children later, the marriage hit the rocks, and when it hit rock bottom, they decided to part ways.
On March 23, 2012, the High Court of Justice of Adamawa State of Nigeria, in the Yola Judicial Division, dissolved the marriage, and the parties went their separate ways.
However, what remained in contention was the sharing of the property, which the couple are said to have jointly acquired.
The couple had built a multi-million-shilling home in Nakuru City and two others in Lanet and Bahati. The total value of the houses is estimated at more than Sh100 million.
The couple had also bought developed parcels of land in Nakuru and other places also valued at more than Sh100 million.
While the man wanted to be left with one of the houses in Nakuru City, in which he is currently residing, as his estranged wife takes the other two, the woman wanted all the property shared equally between them.
The court has now ordered that the house within Nakuru City, in which the man has moved in with another woman, be shared at the ratio of 60 to 40, as the rest are shared equally.
According to the case records before the High Court in Nakuru, life for the two, upon divorce, moved on smoothly until sometime in 2021, after the man moved in with another woman in one of the houses in Nakuru.
On March 23, 2012, the High Court of Justice of Adamawa State of Nigeria dissolved the couple's marriage, and the parties went their separate ways.
The estranged woman filed the case seeking orders declaring that the two properties in Lanet and Bahati and the one in Nakuru City, which was their matrimonial home, be divided equally among them.
She claimed the properties were acquired and developed through their joint funds and efforts during the early days of their marriage.
Her contribution in the acquisition of the matrimonial home, according to the documents, was in the nature of monetary and non-monetary contributions— including childcare, companionship, management of the matrimonial home, management of the family businesses and properties.
The court heard that the couple, while working in the US, used to send money to their mutual friend, a Mr Joseph Kithure, who assisted them in building the matrimonial house in Nakuru City, which was completed while they were working in Nigeria. The couple also secured a loan from the Egerton Sacco.
In response, the man claimed to have developed the property in Nakuru City, using a loan, which he is single-handedly repaying.
He, however, admitted that the properties in Lanet and Bahati were jointly acquired.
He therefore wanted the court to allow him to hold the property in Nakuru City in trust for their children, as the estranged wife does the same for the rest of the properties in Lanet and Bahati.
The woman, however, argued that the properties in Lanet and Bahati are not of equal value to the ones in Nakuru and that it would be unfair to give them to him.
Justice Patricia Gichohi in her March 26 judgment established that the house was not completed by the time the couple was divorcing, therefore the man had contributed more to its construction.
She thus estimated her contribution to be 40 per cent while the man’s to be 60 per cent.
“In fact, the 2009 invoice pointed out that by then the parties were preparing to install doors and windows of the house. In all fairness, I estimate the plaintiff’s contribution to the acquisition and contribution of the plot and development thereon to 40 per cent,” ruled Justice Gichohi.
The court, however, gave the man liberty to buy out the woman’s share of the estate.
The rest of the property, which includes developed prime land valued at an excess of Sh100 million, will be shared equally by the two.
jopenda@ke.nationmedia.com
