Machakos Governor Alfred Mutua yesterday suffered a setback after a Nairobi court declared that it has jurisdiction to hear two cases recently filed by his former wife, Lilian Ng’ang’a, seeking to bar him from selling her car and interfering with their company shares and stocks.
Delivering the ruling, Milimani Senior Resident Magistrate D.M. Kivuti dismissed the preliminary objections raised by Mutua to have the matters transferred to a Machakos court.
Mutua had filed the objections, saying the Milimani court lacked territorial jurisdiction to hear and determine the matters lodged by his former wife, as they had occurred within Machakos county.
Also Read:
“The court lacks jurisdiction to hear and determine this matter on the basis of the value of the shares and stock in dispute,” Mutua had stated.
In one of the cases, Lilian is fighting to retain a vehicle that, she says, she bought seven years ago.
In the second matter, she claims that Mutua transferred her shares in their joint company soon after they ended their nine-year relationship.
The governor had also opposed the application on the grounds that there exists another commercial civil suit between the same parties where matters in question are the same.
“The court lacks subject matter jurisdiction to hear and determine this matter on the basis that the plaintiff (Lilian) having pleaded marriage to the defendant (Mutua), the jurisdiction of this court is thus ousted under Division of Matrimonial Property Act 2013,” reads the court papers.
Mutua had informed the court that two suits filed by his former wife are frivolous and an abuse of the court process.
Forcibly driven The former Machakos First Lady wants the court to bar Mutua from selling, disposing of or claiming the ownership of her car, a Toyota Harrier.
She claims the car was forcibly driven out of her apartment parking bay shortly after a spat between her and Mutua.
In the court documents, Lilian details how Mutua allegedly hatched a plot to dispossess her of some properties after they parted ways.
She alleged that the vehicle was registered in her name and that she had enjoyed using it until September 8, when it was taken away by the governor.
