Is this love or business deal gone sour?

A man a teacher claims is her jilted lover has filed four court cases and recorded complaints in five police stations against her over claims of a Sh165,000 business deal gone awry.

The woman says she severed the relationship in 2002 after six months. But whether it was romance or business, it sparked a police trail on Ms Rose Wanjiku Kogu, who has ended up spending nights in the cells of police stations in Rift Valley, Central, and Nairobi provinces over the past eight years.

Police station

Mr Ibrahim Ndirangu Ndung’u has filed cases against Ms Kogu in the courts in Nyeri, Makadara, Kajiado, and the Milimani Commercial Court. He has also recorded reports against the teacher at Jogoo Road and Kasarani police stations in Nairobi, Kahuro police station in Murang’a, Namanga police station in Kajiado, and Kiamachimbi police station in Nyeri.

Ms Kogu, through her lawyer, told the court that Mr Ndung’u has been using unscrupulous means to harass her over her choice to terminate their romantic relationship. But Mr Ndung’u told the court he was only after the money he claims he gave her in 2002.

The 37-year-old teacher and mother of two children aged four years and seven weeks, has faced suits ranging from robbery with violence, fraud, assault, to defamation — all stemming from the “unfulfilled contract of a clothes deal for new and mitumba (used) clothes”.

Ms Kogu, through her lawyers, has at various times complained to the AG’s office, the commissioner of police, and the CID director about what she believes is outright use of police officers to harass her over the broken relationship. When the violent robbery charge was filed, Ms Kogu complained to the AG.

The AG’s office conducted an independent investigation and found that the charge was founded on malice and directed Mr Ndung’u be charged. To date he hasn’t been charged. This week, Makadara resident magistrate D. Kinaro was told that the clothes were to be imported from Uganda.

Ms Kogu, who was arrested last year and charged with obtaining the Sh165,000 by pretence, has denied the charge. When Mr Ndung’u took to the witness stand last week he said he had opened a plethora of cases against the secondary school teacher to get back his money.

Ms Kogu, since married to Mr Charles Karue who formerly worked in Botswana, sat pensively, cuddling her seven-week-old baby as she watched her accuser riffle through a brown envelope to fish out a “clothes deal” contract they purportedly signed on September 13, 2002.

Remaining witnesses

She is out on a cash bail of Sh50,000, but has denied she defrauded Mr Ndung’u. The case will proceed on August 3. The prosecutor, Inspector Lilian Gichuhi, was ordered to summon all remaining witnesses that day. Court was told the two met at a bar in Nyeri and drank beer.

Ms Kogu, through her lawyer Mwangi Mugo, charged that Mr Ndung’u did not have any real claim and his was just to ensure “she will never be loved by any man. My instructions are that you are malicious and there is bad blood between you and Rose. She ditched you and got married to another man. That is why you have commenced all manner of cases against her from a capital one to civil”.

But Mr Ndung’u stuck to his guns: “No your honour. These cases stem from a collapsed contract between me and Ms Kogu. She failed to deliver to me clothes eight years ago after I gave her a cool Sh165,000.” Mr Mugo further grilled Mr Ndung’u: “You have filed all manner of complaints against the teacher. Is it true you filed a violent robbery claim against her at Kahuro police station Murang’a?” “Yes your honour, I filed the report after I was assaulted by students of Ndutumi Secondary School in Maragwa District.

“My relation with Rose was purely business. I’m a married man with children.” Asked why he had to wait from 2003 to 2009 to report about the alleged fraud at Jogoo police station, Mr Ndung’u told the court last Tuesday that she had “a godfather. A former officer at Murang’a could not allow any policeman to arrest and detain her. She was well shielded”.