Witchcraft claims fly in Kirima saga

FREDRICK ONYANGO | NATION
Ms Margaret Kirima, daughter of ailing politician Gerishon Kirima outside the family’s Kitisuru home Thursday. She said Mr Kirima had divorced his wife, Mrs Teresia Wairimu, under customary law.

What you need to know:

  • The Kirima family reached an agreement on how to manage the businessman’s property only three weeks ago.
  • They resolved that the businesses be run by two family members – Ms Anne Wangari and Mr James Njuguna. They also agreed on how tenants would pay monthly rent, estimated to be up to Sh70 million.
  • But before the dust settles on the deal, divorce and eviction become part of a new episode. Mr Kirima allegedly instructed elders to ‘divorce’ for him Teresia Wairimu, his third wife.

Claims of witchcraft and betrayal emerged on Thursday as the drama facing the family of real estate tycoon Gerishon Kirima took a new twist.

His mother-in-law said in Nyeri that the men who dumped some of her daughter’s belongings, which they took from her Nairobi home, at her gate risked a curse.

In Nairobi, a daughter of the ailing former assistant minister listed 15 accusations against Ms Teresia Wairimu Kirima, the businessman’s third wife, including that she was consulting a Tanzanian witchdoctor.

Third wife of politician

Ms Wairimu is the third wife of the politician, whose vast estate worth millions of shillings has been at the centre of a property struggle among his wives and children. She was thrown out of Mr Kirima’s Kitisuru home on Wednesday.

Ms Margaret Kirima, the daughter, spoke to reporters outside the posh Kitisuru residence. She showed journalists copies of two documents purportedly used by her father, whom she said is recovering from an illness in London, to direct elders to return Ms Wairimu to her maternal home. One document was written by a British notary, on behalf of Mr Kirima, declaring that the tycoon was divorcing Ms Wairimu, while the other listed the reasons for doing so.

Among the reasons read out was that Ms Wairimu allegedly betrayed her marital vows and got married to the Tanzanian witchdoctor.

She is also accused of consulting the witchdoctor and sending money to him through the M-Pesa mobile phone cash transfer system.

But Ms Wairimu dismissed the divorce claims, saying that even if she were to be taken back to her parents’ home, dumping her belongings at her mother’s home in the absence of her husband was not the right way.

Ms Wairimu unsuccessfully tried to re-enter and sleep in the Kitisuru home on Wednesday night.

In Nyeri, Mrs Elizabeth Wanjiku Ndei said the people behind the eviction of her daughter violated Kikuyu custom. “You don’t return an errant wife to her parents forcefully. I am very angry,” she said.