Forgery, conspiracies dog tycoon Olweny's property suit

The vicious fight for a share of a Nakuru tycoon’s wealth by his three widows is likely to leave more casualties than beneficiaries as the brutal court fight reveals some of the mischief adopted by families to seek recognition as beneficiaries of his estate.

The widows of Mr Eliakim Washington Olweny namely Ms Phelesia Olweny, Norah Atieno, and Ann Wanjiru are squaring it out in court for the control of the multibillion estate property he left behind.

But Norah is not only fighting hard to defend her marriage to the late tycoon but also the authenticity of her children’s names in a criminal case where she is charged with forging their birth registration certificates.

The criminal case devolved from the succession suit before the family division of the High Court after Phelesia and her sons, Dr Timothy Olweny and Dr Edwin Olweny, challenged the marriage and the names of Norah’s children.

The first family has disowned the two widows and children as part of the late tycoon’s family and has termed them strangers.

CONSPIRACIES

In the succession case, Norah and Ann have accused Phelesia and her sons of conspiring to disinherit them their entitlement to the property by failing to disclose to the court their relationship with Mr Olweny, information she claims was privy to them.

Norah in her documents filed in court claims to have met the tycoon in 1990 before they got married two years later through a Luo customary marriage.

They formalised the marriage in 1992 after dissolving her first marriage in which she had borne four children.

According to Norah, she had her first child with Mr Olweny in 1999 named Kevin Odhiambo Olweny.

NOT KNOWN

But in a dramatic turn of events, Phelesia and her sons denied knowledge of the two women whom they accused of forcing themselves into the late Olweny’s family.

They lodged complaints to the police over suspected case of forgery by Norah and investigations led to her arrest by detectives in 2018. She was later charged with forgery in a Nakuru court.

However, a chilling testimony by Dr Olweny, a key prosecution witness in the criminal case, paints a picture of a well-orchestrated scheme by Ms Atieno to secretly change the registration of her children with eyes on a future succession suit.

FORGERY

Court documents show an earlier testimony by Mr Olweny dated December 4, 2018 where he presented parallel birth certificates of four children obtained from the civil registrar with glaring inconsistences.

Mr Olweny pointed out some of the anomalies in the alleged forged document which showed that Norah’s four children from the previous marriage had his father Washington Olweny as their father without proof of an adoption process.

The forged birth certificates which have since been cancelled by the registrar on directions from the DCI, according to Mr Olweny, were obtained through a late registration process.

“The late registration documents had no signatures, she had not met with my father when the genuine certificates were being issued. How then would he have consented? For a father to adopt a child there are adoption proceedings,” said Mr Olweny.

CHALLENGED PATERNITY

He further challenged the identity of Kevin Odhiambo, the alleged biological child to his late father.

According to him, the forged documents show that he was born at home in Viwandani, Nakuru County, while investigations on the similar names traced back to Gomongo Huruma Maternity and Nursing home in Nairobi.

The records at the hospital indicate that Norah had no previous births.

“Various documents show that the child has three birth dates. One for Nakuru shows that he was born on November 9, 1999, for Gomongo it is September 12,1999 while a letter from his school indicates his birth date as November 11, 1999. It is not possible for a woman to give birth thrice in three months,” stated Dr Olweny.

The reasons for forging the documents, according to Dr Olweny, was to have them regarded as beneficiaries of the tycoon’s estate.

His testimony was challenged by Norah’s lawyer David Mong’eri who maintained that his client was legally married to Mr Olweny, had a biological son and had consented to the change of names.

FALSE STATEMENTS

In the criminal case before Chief magistrate Josephat Kalo, Ms Atieno is facing eight counts of obtaining registration of birth by false pretence and giving false statement of registration of birth contrary to the law.

Particulars of the various charge sheets indicate that Ms Norah Atieno Wasonga alias Norah Elizabeth Atieno Wasonga alias Norah Atieno Wasonga, on diverse dates between September 1998 and November 2012, wilfully procured a second registration of birth for her four children pretending to be the first registration.

She is also accused of knowingly providing false information to the county civil registrar’s office in Nakuru with the intent of procuring a second birth certificate of her children.

The widow has, however, denied all the charges in court and is out on a Sh100,000 bond.

NEW HEARING

Chief Magistrate Josephat Kalo who received the matter midway on January 23 after the trial magistrate Liz Gichea was transferred to another station, directed that the hearing begins afresh.

The hearing is yet to begin after the matter was adjourned three times for different reasons.

The latest adjournment was on September 13 when the defence lawyer claimed not to be in a position to proceed as he had just arrived from a family function upcountry.

The outcome of the case will be a key factor in the determination of the succession suit pending before the family division as it will have a direct impact on the court’s decision as far as the distribution of the late tycoon’s estate is concerned.