{"id":3267,"date":"2025-04-05T06:24:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/?p=3267"},"modified":"2025-04-05T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T06:26:09","slug":"ex-cj-kitili-mwendwas-widow-nyiva-mwenda-and-son-maluki-mwendwa-battles-sh15m-land-fraud-charges-in-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/ex-cj-kitili-mwendwas-widow-nyiva-mwenda-and-son-maluki-mwendwa-battles-sh15m-land-fraud-charges-in-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-CJ Kitili Mwendwa\u2019s widow Nyiva mwenda and son Maluki mwendwa  Battles Sh15M Land Fraud Charges in Court ."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The widow and son of Kenya\u2019s first black Chief Justice, Kitili Mwendwa, have filed a petition in the High Court in Nairobi seeking to stop their prosecution in a Sh15 million land dispute. Wilfred Nyiva Mwendwa, a former Cabinet Minister, and her son Maluki Kitili, claim the ongoing investigations are based on false allegations made by the buyer of the land, Geoffrey Kuria. They have sued the Inspector General of Police, the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Directorate of Criminal Investigations, and Kuria in their attempt to halt any legal action.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3268\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3268\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3268\" src=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090256.184-300x168.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090256.184-300x168.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090256.184.jpeg 739w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3268\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Picture: Kitili mwendwa&#8217;s family.\u00a0<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>According to court documents, the dispute stems from a piece of land sold to Kuria through Chania Enterprises Limited, a company where both Nyiva and Maluki are directors and shareholders.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3272\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3272\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3272\" src=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090308.350-300x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090308.350-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090308.350-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090308.350.jpeg 554w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3272\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Picture: Maluki Mwendwa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The land was offered at Sh13.5 million, of which Kuria paid a Sh5 million deposit with the promise to clear the balance within 85 weeks. Nyiva and Maluki allege that Kuria requested an early transfer of the property to secure a bank loan to pay the remaining amount, which they allowed.<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3269\" src=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090520.968-300x200.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090520.968-300x200.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090520.968.jpeg 612w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>However, after the transfer, the buyers allegedly defaulted on payments, and a cheque issued to Maluki bounced due to insufficient funds. The applicants claim that Kuria, instead of fulfilling his end of the deal, accused them of fraud and forgery and reported the matter to the police. Maluki was arrested in March 2025 on allegations of obtaining money by false pretence. The family maintains that they provided genuine documents from the land registry and that the charges are baseless.<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-3270\" src=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-300x294.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-300x294.jpg 300w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-1024x1003.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-768x752.jpg 768w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Maluki further claims the legal action is a strategy to coerce them and avoid payment. He told the court the charges were \u201cpretextual\u201d and aimed at embarrassing his 83-year-old mother and himself. Citing threats and intimidation by police officers, he asked the court to freeze any action against them until the matter is fully heard and determined. The family asserts they are law-abiding citizens and that the prosecution move is unjust and malicious.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3271\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3271\" style=\"width: 255px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3271\" src=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090206.024-255x300.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"255\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090206.024-255x300.jpeg 255w, https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/images-2025-04-05T090206.024.jpeg 280w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 255px) 100vw, 255px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3271\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em>Picture: Nyiva mwendwa<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The widow and son of Kenya\u2019s first black Chief Justice, Kitili Mwendwa, have filed a petition in the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3270,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578.jpg",1080,1058,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-300x294.jpg",300,294,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-768x752.jpg",640,627,true],"large":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-1024x1003.jpg",640,627,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578.jpg",1080,1058,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578.jpg",1080,1058,false],"morenews-featured":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-1024x1003.jpg",1024,1003,true],"morenews-large":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-825x575.jpg",825,575,true],"morenews-medium":["https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1743833433578-590x410.jpg",590,410,true]},"author_info":{"display_name":"Kambaland Times","author_link":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/author\/kituitimes\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/category\/newsbeat\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Newsbeat<\/a>","tag_info":"Newsbeat","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3267"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3273,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3267\/revisions\/3273"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kambalandtimes.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}