Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdi's wife is facing arrest for failure to pay a Sh74 Million debt owed to three businessmen.
The Jubilee party Governor's wife, Mrs Kheira Maalim Omar, was involved in a fraudulent lease agreement of a building in Nairobi's Eastleigh estate.
The three businessmen, through their lawyer Ahmednasir Abdulahi, told the court that the Governor's wife signed a lease for the plot on which Liban Shopping Complex has been built in January 2008 purporting to be the owner of the land while in fact, she had sold the property in November 2007.
[caption caption="Governor Mohamed Abdi with his wife and First Lady Margaret Kenyatta during a past event"]
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Kheira Maalim required the land buyers to deposit Sh40 Million to secure the lease agreement for a period of 10 years, a requirement the complainants promptly met.
Upon realising that the Governor's wife had already sold the property to a third party for Sh110 Million, the three moved to court to have their monies refunded.
At the time, the court found Governor Abdi's wife guilty of defrauding the businessmen, Abdirizak Ahmed Mohamed, Andirahama Harah Maalim and Al Noor Dube.
"The plaintiffs upon the execution of the said agreement and in accordance with clause 3 of the said agreement paid the defendant on diverse dates the sum of Sh40,000,000, which monies was a deposit to specifically secure the full lease period, and which receipt thereof was duly acknowledged by Kheira," former Justice Leornard Njagi ruled.
Further orders required her to pay the Sh40 Million owed to the businessmen, including interest, as well as the legal fees that totalled to Sh73,718,384.00.
The amount has since increased to Sh74,191,318.00. Left unpaid, the businessmen moved back to court to obtain orders to compel her to settle the debt.
A letter dated November 29, 2017 served to the Governor's wife reads in part: "We have instructions to demand from you, which we hereby do, that you pay the said sum in its entirety within the next seven days, failure to which we shall proceed to execute the warrants of arrest and committal to civil jail."
[caption caption="File image of Wajir Governor Mohamed Abdi Mahamud"]
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