Former Ainabkoi MP Wiliam Chepkut's first wife is now accusing her inlaws of a scheme to disinherit her three months after the death of the legislator.
Milcah Chepkut is currently embroiled in a bitter property dispute with the deceased's siblings who she claims are keen to lock her out of the deceased's vast estate.
Chepkut died on October 8, 2022, after a long battle with kidney disease.
He is said to have left behind property valued at about Ksh150 million mostly in Eldoret and Nairobi.
Some of the assets left behind by the former lawmaker, who left behind three widows, include a hotel and prime plots in Eldoret, a timber treatment plant and agricultural land within Uasin Gishu. Chepkut also had several movable assets to his name.
Milcah told Nation that she has been denied access to her matrimonial home in Eldoret.
She claims that she was arrested alongside her shamba boy on Thursday and detained for a night at Kaptagat Police Station on accusations of malicious damage to the house she says is her matrimonial home.
The two were released unconditionally on Friday without being taken to court.
She is now accusing police of being used by her relatives to disinherit her.
“I spent a night at this station. Police are accusing me of malicious damage. How can someone be accused of damaging her property?" she posed after her release from custody.
She claims that she tried to gain access to the house after arriving from Nairobi and found it locked by unknown persons.
She instructed the gardener to break the lock and that's when they were arrested and locked up at Kaptagat Police station.
Amid the claims, Chepkut's brother insists that the house does not belong to the woman.
Daniel Chepkut claims the deceased left behind a will that was used to distribute his properties and the house in question is the family's "extended house".
He categorically said that the deceased left firm instructions that his wife should not inherit the house.
“This house doesn’t belong to Milcah as she is claiming this is our extended family house. The late MP left us with firm instruction that she should not claim ownership of the house,” he said.
"She was not living in the house where she was arrested and it was under the custody of one of our brothers who is acting as a caretaker."
Daniel claimed the widow was allocated seven acres of land outside their ancestral home together with other property.
“She was given a seven-acre piece of land at Chep-Centre and that is where she is expected to construct her home,” he said.
He accused Milcah of frustrating other widows left behind by the late and skipping meetings meant to iron out issues related to the distribution of property and particularly the house in question.
“On January 3, we had a family meeting to dispose of some of the deceased's items like clothes as required traditionally but Milcah did not turn up,” Daniel said.
Milcah is now calling on President William Ruto to intervene, saying her life and the lives of her two sons are in danger.
“When my husband died, President Ruto promised to stand with my family and the time has come for him, together with our Woman Rep Gladys Boss Shollei to come out and save my family from greedy in-laws who want to disinherit me,” Milcah said even as her sons accused the deceased's siblings of squandering more than Ksh8 million contributed by friends during the deceased's burial.
