Pauline Omungala, former Nyeri Senior Resident Magistrate, who is being charged with murdering her husband, wants to sell her property to meet her upkeep and that of their children.
Through her lawyer, Assa Nyakundi, Omungala told the court on Wednesday that she faced challenges of meeting her daily needs together with the children’s following her interdiction without salary.
In an application, Nyakundi requested that the title deeds of the magistrate’s property be returned to enable her to dispose them off, claiming she had “run out of means of livelihood”.
“It is my humble submission at this point that my client needs those documents (title deeds) urgently so that she can organise her life and sell some of the property. Actually, she was interdicted without salary,” Nyakundi told Justice George Odunga.
The magistrate, who was released on bond in June, also sought the court’s intervention to allow her access her matrimonial home in Moke Gardens, Athi River, claiming she did not have a place to live with her children.
The two applications were tabled on Wednesday in Machakos during the pre-trial conference of the case, in which Omungala and four others have been linked to the killing of Robert Chesang.
The family of the deceased, through their lawyer Wanjiku Wandungi, protested the second application stating that Omugala should not be allowed into the house until investigators make a report that it was no longer of interest to them.
“I am instructed that unless there is a report by the investigator to show that the house is no longer of interest, my client is apprehensive of allowing the first accused to get back to the house,” stated Wanjiku.
However, Chesang’s family had no objection to the former magistrate being handed title deeds that she did not jointly own with their kin.
In his ruling, Justice Odunga allowed Omungala’s documents to be handed back to her but declined to issue a directive over the issue of properties jointly owned by Omungala and her slain husband, noting that it was a matter of determination as a succession case.
