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A pastor and a member of a city church, who colluded to forge a marriage certificate in a bid to inherit a tycoon’s multi-billion-shilling estate, have been jailed by a Nairobi court.

Christopher Mutira of International Pentecostal Holiness Church Africa, based in Nairobi’s Ngara Estate, and Marilyn Mercy Wanjiru were slapped with a fine of Ksh200,000 or serve one year in prison for the offences of forging a marriage certificate and presenting it to the Registrar of Marriages as a genuine marriage certificate.

The pastor and the woman had in 2018 immediately after the death of the late Kanwalgit Signh Chadda forged certificate to show that there existed a valid marriage between Wanjiru and the deceased before the tycoon died of a heart attack.

The pastor claimed that he solemnized the marriage between Wanjiru and Chadda on July 27, 2018, and issued them with marriage certificate number 271140.

It is this marriage certificate that was presented to the Registrar of Marriages at the Attorney General chamber on July 27, 2018, purporting to be a genuine legal document recognizing the marriage between the woman and the deceased businessman.

Pastor’s actions

While sentencing the duo, Milimani Magistrate Ben Mark Enkubi said the acts by Wanjiru and the pastor were evil and ill-intended to defraud the estate of the late Chadda who died in 2018 of heart attack intestate

“This court condemns the action by the pastor to indulge in criminality instead of fighting it.

“The act has depicted the men of the cloth in a bad light as demonstrated in this case that pastor Mutira descended into the arena of crime by signing and issuing a forged marriage certificate to the deceased’s children, ” Magistrate Enkubi said.

He said the court will not sit and watch crime being committed and executed in total disregard to the law.

“The brother to the deceased nudged the Court to consider that the accused persons continued denying committing the offence and that they were not remorseful to be accorded leniency.

“I, therefore, find each of the accused guilty and sentence them to pay a fine of Sh 200,000 or serve a jail term of one and half years in default,” the magistrate ruled.

In their mitigation, the pastor and the mother of two pleaded for leniency saying they are remorseful and regret the action.

Wanjiru, who was assisted by the pastor, had planned to disinherit the children of the late properties including a house in Ngara where Chadda lived, a motor vehicle, two plots in Nairobi, a 7.5-acre parcel of land in Shimoni, Kwale County, and Treasury bonds held at Absa Bank.

She also listed shares in Britam, Co-op Bank, Diamond Trust Bank Housing Finance Company of Kenya, KCB Bank, Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), Safaricom, Total Kenya, Old Mutual, and Absa, which was worth Ksh5 million as of December 2018.

The family of Chadda led by his brother Parminder Singh claim that their kin was not married and never had a girlfriend.

It is said that Wanjiru was pursuing a succession case, pending before the High Court, involving the estate of Chadda and the certificate would strengthen her case.

The woman already petitioned to be granted letters to administer the estate of Chadda but Parminder challenged it and also filed a complaint at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) over the forged certificate.

Wanjiru listed her son and daughter aged 28 and 26 years respectively and her as surviving beneficiaries of the estate and that he died aged 76 without a will.

Parminder had in 2019 asked the court to compel Wanjiru to deposit all the money she allegedly collected from Chadda’s properties in court.

Wanjiru claimed he first met Chadda in 1989 at Parklands when she was 19 years.

They parted ways and later reunited in 1999 and started cohabiting in 2013 until his death.