By Amos Kareithi Updated Monday,
August 4th 2014
Thomas Mue Kathumba (in cap), Monicah Kyee, Agnes Nduku
(centre) and Benson Nzau Mutua and another relative John Kathumba hold
consultations. [PHOTO: JOE OMBUOR/STANDARD]
NAIROBI KENYA: She was one of
Nairobi’s arguably biggest land owner but died a pauper without an inch of soil
to her name. When it rains it pours. And that is the predicament of a widow who
died on July 4, 2014, after being detained by unknown abductors. In life, fate
denied Beatrice Syokau Kathumba, 87, the joy of ever being a mother and then
snatched her husband John Kathumba Mukuthi.
Then a group of conspirators went
into overdrive and, for a decade, Kathumba’s land just next to Jomo Kenyatta
International Airport estimated at over 1,000 acres, which Syokau was supposed
to inherit, was grabbed and developed as the widow desperately sought
assistance from the Ministry of Lands. And just when the grandmother thought
she had seen it all, she was reportedly abducted from her house in Embakasi and
held incommunicado for four years. In the interim, the ‘strangers’ obtained her
power of attorney to administer her remaining estate, excluding all her
relatives. At the same time, the group started collecting rent from her 40
rental rooms in Embakasi as Syokau was held in isolation in a rented house in
Imara Daima. Her relations would learn of her whereabouts when it was too late.
Syokau died in mysterious circumstances at Kenyatta National Hospital. But even
in death, she continues to fuel controversy. Her body is being held in Machakos
mortuary as her step-daughters, surrogate children, and other beneficiaries
fight for the right to bury her and redeem her land in Nairobi worth billions.
On the day she was to be buried, Syokau’s body was secretly removed from
Kenyatta National Hospital on July 10, this year, by some people who were not
even her relatives. There was a dramatic chase of the hearse which was
intercepted before it arrived at Mitaboni. Pursuant to court orders sought by
step-daughters Litha Kathumbi Kathumba and Amina Mbula Kathumba, the body was
taken Machakos Funeral Home. A post-mortem examination her step-daughters had
requested to determine what actually killed her was abandoned and KNH offered
to refund the Sh3,000 which had been paid.
Syokau’s funeral arrangements were disrupted following court
orders stopping the burial. Syokau’s body is still at the mortuary as the
parties slug it out in court. At stake is the last of her 49.7 acres of land
along Mombasa Road which is estimated to be worth over Sh3 billion. Syokau’s
woes date back to the year her husband Kathumba died in 1990. Soon after she
reported to the Criminal Investigations Department in Embakasi, detectives on
October 12, 2006, chronicled her woes in a letter to Ardhi House, detailing how
she had tried in vain to have LR. Number 7149/9 registered in her name.
According to the letter addressed to the Commissioner of Lands, “when she took
the documents to Lands office, she was promised the title will be issued in her
name but she was given a fake title deed”. Syokau later realised that the title
deed she had been given, NA/A5/04/145, on registry map number 194 for parcel
number 145 measuring 48.7 hectares (120.3 acres) was fake. This title deed was
dated July 20, 1997. She reported the matter to the CID and investigations were
launched. The land Syokau was claiming was originally registered as LR
No.7075/3 in the name of Laura Ellen Woodly in 1938. Title deed was to expire
after 978 years. This is the title deed Syokau surrendered to the Land office
so that it could be registered in her name. Apparently, the land registry
number had changed following numerous sub-divisions. At one point, Benson Nzau
Mutua says he was called at the Lands office in Nairobi after some imposters
tried to sell the land. “One of the imposters had actually forged an identity
card and was claiming to be me. I told them off and I do not know whether they
were ever arrested," says Mutua. He claims he was given power of attorney
by Syokau, who is his aunt, on August 16, 2006, and even paid for the
sub-division of the land.
According to Mutua, her aunt had severed all ties with her
step-daughters. “She had ‘married’ another woman Monicah Kyee. She got two
sons, Thomas Mue and John Kathumba, who are now her legitimate heirs,” he says.
According to Kyee, shortly before Syokau died, she was chased away from her
home in Embakasi by the abductors who started collecting rent from the houses.
Syokau’s step-daughters have a different story. They claim that the deceased
was abducted by three men when she left Mitaboni on March 4, 2010, never to be
heard of again, until they got a tip-off that she was at Kenyatta National
Hospital where she died on July 4, 2014. The two, who went to court to prevent
the burial of their step-mother by ‘strangers’ until the cause of her death was
ascertained, say they reported her abduction to Mathunya sub-location chief on
the same day she went missing. They say they had already obtained letters of
administration of their father’s estate which was granted by High Court Judge
HPG Waweru on July 22, 2010. Dickson Wambua Makau, one of the men they are accusing
of abducting and trying to secretly bury their step-mother,� also claims that he has
power of attorney. Wambua has denied abducting Syokau, saying he was acting in
good faith by caring for the old woman who was neglected. He says that he was
working as a clerk in a legal firm which had been retained by Syokau where he
earned the trust of the granny to the extent of granting him power of attorney.
As the step-daughters, adopted children and Wambua fight for the right to bury
Syokau’s remains, questions still linger. According to Mutua, some strangers
have already taken possession of Syokau’s rental rooms near the airport. “A man
who claims to be a police officer has been collecting rent. How can all this
happen?” wondered Mutua.
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