Lucy Kabuu (right) and her estranged husband Jeremiah Maina.
Ruling by the High Court on February 24 in favour of 2006 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres champion, Lucy Kabuu, against her estranged husband in a row over matrimonial property worth Sh70 million shines the spotlight on the struggles other local athletes face with regard to property ownership.
On February 24 this year, Nakuru High Court Judge Justice Samwel Mohochi delivered a landmark ruling highlights the silent struggles athletes, mostly women, go through in the fight for right to marital property.
Most of the cases involve athletes taking their spouses to court over control of property, while others are between parents or siblings of deceased athletes fighting with the spouse for control over property left behind, mostly parcels of land, cars, and houses.
Lucy Kabuu and (inset) her former husband Jeremiah Maina.
After a 12-year fight in the corridors of justice, 2012 Chicago Marathon champion Kabuu, who also won bronze in 2014 Tokyo Marathon, breathed a sigh of relief after winning a Sh70 million matrimonial property dispute with her estranged husband Jeremiah Maina.
The High Court awarded Kabuu the lion’s share of the Sh70 million property involved. The court found that the long distance runner, whose athletics career spans 23 years from 2000, was the engine and muscle behind the couple’s wealth.
Maina wanted an equal share of the property, but the court ruled that Kabuu will have exclusive control of five-story rental apartments in Umoja Estate in Nairobi County, properties in Free Area and in Bahati, both in Nakuru County, as well as two properties in Nyandarua County. The couple will share their matrimonial house in Nyahururu, Kabuu getting 80 percent share and Maina 20 per cent.
“The court has satisfied that Kabuu was the financial muscle of the marriage that existed between 2009 and 2014. She proved that she made at least Sh17 million between 2012 and 2013, when she won medals and prizes from her marathon, and entrusted Maina to manage her finances,” the judge said in the ruling.
Jeremiah Maina Kamungu, former husband of Kenya athlete Lucy Kabuu.
The judge explained that the properties Maina had sold against the orders of the court will be deducted from his share, adding that Maina’s salary of Sh32,00 per month from Kenya Police Service couldn’t have enabled him to acquire the properties he claimed to have in Nyahururu worth Sh655,000.
Some cases involving fight over control of marital property have resulted in death.
For instance, Ugandan Olympian Rebecca Cheptegei was doused in petrol and set ablaze by her Kenyan boyfriend Dickson Ndiema in September 2024 following land dispute in Endebess, Trans Nzoia County.
The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in 2024 Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns and died at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret. Ndiema also died days later of burns he sustained when he attacked Cheptegei.
Some former and current Kenyan athletes are fighting in court for control of marital property.
The 2011 world marathon bronze medallist Sharon Cherop, who is also the 2012 Boston Marathon champion, is engaged in a multi-million-shilling property row with her former husband, Matthew Bowen.
High-profile divorce case
Cherop and Bowen, who is also a former international athlete, ended their marriage in October 2024 after Cherop filed for divorce in an Eldoret court, citing infidelity, violence and absenteeism on the part of Bowen, who is a coach in USA.
The court allowed the divorce to proceed. The disputed assets include land, which consists of a matrimonial home estimated to cost Sh34 million in Kipkorgot along the Eldoret-Ravine highway.
The couple also is wrangling over two pieces of land in Uasin Gishu’s Kimumu Settlement Scheme. One is valued at Sh40 million, and the other Sh5 million. Both also want control over rental property near the University of Eldoret that draws income of Sh260,000 per month.
Cherop and Bowen are also tussling over ownership of the Beauty Smile and Cosmetics business in Eldoret Central Business District, valued at Sh15 million. Bowen wants the court to allow him to keep the said properties, saying he single-handedly acquired and developed them and that Cherop fraudulently registered them in her name.
Cherop insists she acquired the assets from the money she earned from local and international races. The couple, who got married in 2008 and have four children, want to court to split their wealth based on each one’s contribution.
Pamela Jelimo celebrates with the Kenya flag after winning the women's 800m gold medal at the Beijing National Stadium.
The 2008 Beijing Olympic Games 800m champion Pamela Jelimo and her ex-husband, Peter Murrey were engaged in a high-profile divorce case and a subsequent property dispute in 2013.
Murrey wanted to keep a tractor worth Sh1.9 million that was registered in his name following the collapse of their five-year marriage but Jelimo said she purchased it with money from her races. Jelimo won the case and kept the tractor.
The 1997 world 5,000m champion Daniel Komen, who also won the 1998 Africa 5,000m title, is currently in a legal battle with his wife, Joyce Kimosop, over accusations that he sold a 220-acre parcel of land worth more than Sh300 million in Uasin Gishu County.
Kimosop claims that the land is matrimonial property, and Komen sold it without her consent. Komen insists that he owned the parcel of land, having purchased it with his money.
Since the death of the 2008 Beijing Olympic marathon champion Samuel Wanjiru in 2011, his mother Hannah, has accused his wife Triza Njeri of mismanaging her son’s properties and suspected foul play in the athlete’s death.
Njeri and Hannah have differed over the control of rental houses in Nyahururu and Nakuru. Njeri is also pursuing her late husband’s property worth millions of shillings which was allegedly grabbed.
