![Kanswajit Sheigh Chadda’s brothers allege that Merilyn Mercy Wanjiru forged a marriage certificate to “steal their late brother’s property”. [PHOTO | COURTESY]](https://i0.wp.com/www.k24tv.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/COUPL-ON-DATE.jpg?resize=730%2C414&ssl=1)
A 50-year-old woman from Nairobi has been dragged to court to explain the authenticity of her alleged marriage to a Nairobi man of Asian descent, who -- according to his siblings -- died in July 2017.
Kanswajit Sheigh Chadda’s brothers allege that Merilyn Mercy Wanjiru forged a marriage certificate to “steal their late brother’s property”.
Wanjiru’s now-controversial marriage certificate shows she exchanged wedding vows with Chadda on July 17, 2018, and lived with him until October 31, 2018, the day he allegedly died.
Chadda’s brothers, however, produced in court a police report showing that he died in July 2017, and not October 2018 as claimed by Wanjiru, who claims to be an administrator at the Ministry of Agriculture.
In documents filed at the Milimani Law Courts, Wanjiru worked as Chadda’s house-help until his death in July 2017.
Wanjiru, thereafter, continued to stay in Chadda’s house in Ngara, Nairobi.
A police report shows that Chadda lived in the Ngara house, which was left to him by his brother, Parminder Sigh, who relocated to the United States with his other siblings – a sister and brothers.
Sigh now says he found Wanjiru’s claims – that she was married to Chadda – to be suspicious.
“My brother was never married,” said Sigh.
On her part, Wanjiru claimed she and Chadda were in a relationship between 1998 until “his death, which occurred on October 31, 2018”.
Wanjiru said she started living together with Chadda in 2013.
“In 2015, he got ill, and, ever since, I was the one who took care of him,” she said.
Wanjiru said on July 17, 2018, she and Chadda went to the Registrar of Marriages at the Attorney General’s Office in Nairobi, where they solemnised their union.
Wanjiru, who is accused of forgery, is out on Ksh30, 000 police bond.
The Milimani Law Courts ordered her to appear before it on December 4, 2019 so that she can take plea.
Wanjiru has been living in Chadda’s house with her two children from her previous marriage, the court was told.
Chadda’s sibling, Sigh, told the court that he, his other brothers and sister have nowhere else to live in Kenya besides the Ngara house that Chadda has left behind.
Sigh says the house was left to them by their father, who arrived in Kenya in 1940.
Before leaving for the US years back, Sigh said, they had sold some of their properties, including houses and business premises, and were only left with the Ngara house.
