Juja-based businesswoman Alice Muchugi is crying out for justice after a row over her property has dragged on in the courts for close to 17 months rendering her bankrupt.
The dispute pitting her and a former policeman who is her ex-lover has been handled by three different courts in Kiambu County and the Rent Tribunal.
Muchugi, a mother of three, has been fighting to retain one of her prime properties, Lulu Gardens Resort in Mugutha along the Kimbo-Kiganjo road which the estranged boyfriend Christopher Mukirae is also staking a claim, alleging matrimonial status.
While refuting that there was no any marriage between them, Muchugi says instead the man with whom they sired a son owes her Ksh3.4 million in rent which he has refused to pay.
A series of orders have been issued in favour of both parties by Thika and Ruiru courts as well as the High Court in Kiambu, but have not been brought to effect.
The latest order was granted to Muchugi by the Rent Tribunal on December 9, dismissing a case filed by Mukirae and directing her to recover her rent claim and evict him from the hotel.
However, it took more than one week for the Ruiru court to grant the requisite orders to an auctioneer to effect the ruling by the rent tribunal and, in the meantime, Mukirae went back to the same court and reopened the case that is set to be heard again afresh.
PHOTO/Oliver Musembi
Muchugi says she feels frustrated and demoralized by the court's failure to serve justice, noting that apart from being the legal owner of the property, she has single-handedly built the hotel but has not earned anything from the proceeds of her investment for close to two years.
“This man has been boasting to his friends that he is well connected in government circles and that I will not go far. My life is also in danger because he is a licensed gun holder and has threatened me, a thing that I raised in court,” she said.
Woman risks losing property
Muchugi says she is servicing bank loans amounting to over Ksh600,000 monthly and is at risk of losing the property if she defaults on repayment.
“I acquired this investment so that I do not bother my children in old age, but now a man falsely claiming to be my husband seems to be using the courts to frustrate me,” she said.
She explained how their relationship ended in October last year when she came back from a trip abroad at night and found the man with another woman at her house.
Mukirae declined to comment when reached on phone.
