Mary Mwende, the woman who is claiming a share of the estates of two men who died in 2021 and 2023, claiming she was once married to each of them.
Andrew Wanyoike Muthee, 54, and Geoffrey Kinyua Mwangi, 35, died two years apart, but, in death, they are controversially united by one woman: Mary Mwende.
Mwende is fighting the widows of the two men demanding a share of their properties in separate battles that expose love affairs and double lives.
A twist of fate led Wanyoike’s widow, Lucy Wangeci Mutahi, who is overseeing his estate estimated at Sh100 million, to Kinyua’s widow, Scholastica Wairimu Gacheru.
In his prime, Wanyoike had a successful career with a global non-governmental organisation and he had invested in real estate – land and rental properties.
Mwende insists she had been married to Wanyoike until October 25, 2023, when he died at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH) due to chronic kidney disease.
Mwende used to work as a bar attendant at Comfy Inn in Kahawa Wendani off Thika Road. Wanyoike frequented the joint on his way home.
But Wangeci accuses Mwende of forging her husband’s signature in an affidavit of marriage and cites information she has obtained from Wairimu to portray Mwende as a fraudster who preys on wealthy men.
“I learnt that the applicant (Mwende) is claiming to be a wife in another different estate of Geoffrey Kinyua Mwangi who died by hanging in which she is placing caution in the properties as a wife. The applicant (Mwende) is a fraudulent person who is claiming in two different estates as a wife,” Wangeci states in court papers dated November 5, 2024.
Wangeci, who alongside her daughter, Faith Wambui Wanyoike, obtained letters of administration for Wanyoike’s estate on February 27, 2024, makes the damning claim in a response to an application by Mwende seeking to block distribution of the properties.
Mwende filed the case at the High Court in Kiambu, arguing she and her daughter (name withheld because she is a minor) are beneficiaries of the estate of the deceased (Wanyoike) having been “married to him since 2018”.
This complicated entanglement between the three families begins in 2012.
At the time, Mwende and Kinyua were probably having an affair, as Wairimu was his wife.
Mwende’s daughter was born on August 16, 2012, according to a birth certificate, which lists Geoffrey Kinyua Mwangi as the father.
Besides Mwende’s daughter, Kinyua has three other children with Wairimu.
Kinyua died reportedly by suicide on September 26, 2021.
Earlier that day, Wairimu said she had gone to church in Kahawa West. But when she returned home, she found Kinyua's lifeless body hanging from the ceiling of the house.
He had presumably committed suicide in their matrimonial home, according to official records at the Kenyatta University Funeral Home.
But two months before Kinyua’s death, Mwende was reportedly married to Wanyoike.
In an affidavit sworn on July 25, 2021, Mwende says she had been married to Wanyoike “since 2018 and they were living as husband and wife.”
According to the document, Mwende said they agreed to have her name changed from Mary Mwende Kamau to Mary Mwende Wanyoike.
It would appear the relationship between Wanyoike and Wangeci was rocky at the time. In February 2020, Wangeci had sued Wanyoike over child support and the court ordered him to pay school fees and related expenses for their children.
Meanwhile, after Kinyua's death, his widow, Wairimu, was shocked when Mwende's lawyers served her with an order not to transact in a prime property in Kahawa.
“I am a beneficiary of the deceased and I would request the said company, Kamae Resettlement Scheme, to put caution until the succession case is over,” Mwende said in an affidavit dated December 1, 2021.
Among the contested properties is land opposite Kenyatta University Teaching, Referral & Research Hospital (KUTRRH) valued over Sh5 million and rental houses.
Mwende, through William Mbugua & Co. Advocates, served Wairimu with a caution, saying, “As a beneficiary of the estate of Geoffrey Kinyua Mwangi, no one should interfere with the property as there are more interested parties in the property as the previous owner was previously married and had children with the cautioner. The cautioner hereby applies for registration of a caution over the above title to the extent or scope stated above”.
Curiously, the caution served to Wairimu by William Mbugua & Co. Advocates based at Wakulima House in Ruiru town has no court order attached to it and no serial number of the land registry it originated from.
Nation.Africa sought Mr Mbugua for a right of reply on the purported caution document, but he disowned the documents. Mr Mbugua said he has never met or served Wairimu yet all documents bear his name and that of his law firm. He is also representing Mwende in the Wanyoike succession case.
To buttress her claim of a stake in the estate, Mwende visited Kahawa West location Senior Chief Douglas Kimani on January 17, 2022, securing a letter from the administrator that listed Mwende’s daughter among Kinyua’s four children – two sons and two daughters.
Nation.Africa traced Mr Kimani to Dagoretti, where he has since been transferred, to ascertain the documents he relied on to certify that Mwende was married to Kinyua when he wrote a letter to the Ruiru Chief Magistrate confirming that the man had fathered her daughter.
After examining the document, Mr Kimani told Nation.Africa that there were glaring discrepancies in the signature used compared to his actual signature.
“Allow me to call my former office to ask for that file for review and come back to you,” Mr Kimani said. By the time of going to press, he had not responded.
Fast forward to October 25, 2023. Wanyoike reportedly collapsed and died inside one of his rental premises in Kiamumbi area off Kamiti Road in Kiambu County. His death was blamed on diabetes and hypertension complications as well as chronic kidney failure.
Mwende in court papers says “the deceased passed on under my watch having long battled with illness”.
After Wanyoike’s death, Wangeci moved to Milimani Law Courts, Nairobi, fearing she would be disinherited. Part of her complaint was that Mwende had seized Wanyoike's vehicle. The court ordered that Wangeci take back possession of the car.
But on the tussle between the two women on who would bury him, Milimani Family Court’s Principal Magistrate G.M. Gitonga, on November 23, 2023, allowed Wanyoike’s mother, Mary Wambui Muthee, to bury her son on his land in Mugumoini in Murang’a County.
This was a blow to Wangeci who had filed the case and named her mother-in-law and Mwende among the defendants.
The magistrate also directed Wanyoike’s mother to keep her son’s documents, including his identity card, death certificate and burial permit.
The court ordered Wambui “shall not hand them over to any of the parties including Mwende without this or other court’s order.”
Wangeci then moved to High Court in Kiambu seeking to stop Mwende from claiming ownership of the estate.
Through Lokitano & Company Advocates, Wangeci told the court that a forensic document examiner had sworn an affidavit stating that after examining the documents presented by Mwende, the signatures attributed to Andrew Wanyoike Muthee were found to be forged.
“The questioned signature on the document is dissimilar and distinguishable in comparison with specimen signatures on documents marked…My observation is that both questioned and known signatures do not share any similar individual writing characteristics and as stated in methodology meaning that the disputed document was not signed by the late Andrew Wanyoike Muthee,” states Daniel Gutu, a forensic document examiner.
Wangeci told the court, “The affidavit of marriage contains a forged signature of the deceased. The affidavit is fraudulent and cannot form the basis for any proceedings before this court including the instant application.
“I believe the applicant is disturbing and unjustly delaying the distribution of properties in this estate to its rightful heirs,” adds Wangeci in filings in the succession cause no E124 of 2023.
Justice Abigail Mshila on February 27, 2024, granted Wangeci and her daughter Faith letters of administration for the estate.
But on June 12, 2024, Mwende protested the decision to name Wangeci and her daughter the joint administrators of the estate. “I am the wife of the deceased and I was not consulted and/or involved in petitioning this court. That the deceased used to take care of me as his wife together with my daughter who is a minor,” Mwende stated.
“I came to find out that the respondents fraudulently obtained the letters of administration of the above estate on the 27th of February 2024 without any consent as the wife of the deceased,’’ reads part of the supporting affidavit filed by Mwende.
Mwende notes there is a court order barring her and Wangeci from accessing the documents of the deceased.
She also counters that since the court order barring access to the deceased personal documents is still in place, “forgery must have been adopted in filing this succession.”
“The petitioners are in the process of defrauding the beneficiaries of the deceased,” she argues.
On November 14, 2024, Kiambu High Court Judge D.O. Chepkwony declined to issue orders in favour of an application by Mwende dated October 28, 2024.
In her application, Mwende wanted control of the rental income of one of the storeyed rentals owned by Wanyoike in Kiamumbi.
The judge instead asked the parties to file responses.
Curiously, two more widows we learnt were locked in similar property feuds with Mwende who insists she is also a beneficiary of the estates pulled out of interviews at the last minute.
They said after consulting their families, members felt the story would embarrass their deceased loved ones with one citing the dead husband was a church elder.
Mwende did not respond to Nation calls and text messages and his advocate said she could not respond to issues touching on Mwende without her consent.
