Widow to lock ‘co-wife’ out of late husband’s wealth

The widow of a prominent Eldoret businessman has vowed not to share the multi-million shillings estate left behind by her late husband with a woman who claims to be her co-wife.

Mayuriben Manilal, the widow of Rafji Manilal, was testifying before Justice Reuben Nyakundi in a case in which a woman, who was an employee of her husband has moved to court demanding a share of the deceased estate spread across the country.

The woman, an interior designer, claims to have sired a girl, who is now 19 with the deceased. She wants the court to compel the late businessman’s family to consider her his second wife and support the child financially. The woman, in her earlier testimony, had told the court that they started courting in 2003 and were blessed with a baby girl who is now a university student.

She further informed the court that Manilal married her under the Kikuyu customary law after visiting her family in Murang’a in 2003.

The woman had told the court that the deceased attended marriage negotiations in her village before she conceived and so she is qualified to share part of his vast estate. But in her testimony, the widow claimed the woman and her daughter have never been introduced to her by her husband, terming them as strangers in the family.

She vowed not to cede any part of her late husband’s property. “In fact in our Hindu region, polygamy is not recognised and for the woman to claim to be my co-wife, it is total lies,” said the widow.