Former Vice President’s daughter risks dropping out of school due to fees

Michelle Nafuna Wamalwa 'Chichi' and Derrick Mboya

The last born of the late Kijana Wamalwa, Kenya’s former Vice President, could drop out of college due to lack of fees, barely a year after her mother’s death.

Michelle ‘Chichi’ Wamalwa, 18, recently told the world that were it not for well-wishers and friends, she wouldn’t even feed herself.

The shortage of cash is due to the numerous court tussles that led to the freezing of Wamalwa’s benefits in bank accounts, besides misuse of funds and caveats placed on properties including the house in Karen where Chichi and Derek Mboya live.

Chichi claimed a high-ranking relative in government promised a scholarship to Australia in March 2018 but that has not materialised since she cleared high school.  

Kijana died in 2003 six months after his wedding to Yvonne Wamalwa, then 34. Yvonne died last year leaving the ongoing court battles including an injunction that has put a brake on the processing of Wamalwa’s pension.

Chichi laments that “as soon as dad passed away, it was all downhill from there. They pounced on us and tried to take advantage,” she said, adding that life has not been rosy and sometimes they are mocked by would be well-wishers who cite the status of their relatives including those in government.

Alice Muthoni, another one of the elder siblings said, “we were in the process of finalising the distribution of our late father’s estate by the time my step-mother Yvonne passed on, but we were unable to agree on all issues pertaining to equitable distribution of the estate necessitating judicial intervention in the matter.”  She also charges that Derek should not be a beneficiary because he is a scion of the Tom Mboya family.

During Yvonne’s funeral last year, Deputy President William Ruto had said he would help the late VP’s children complete their education.

Chichi also intimated that her mother, Yvonne, was broke at the time of her death from cancer and was unable to access health insurance and her own pension.

From Wamalwa’s initial dues paid by the government, Yvonne is said to have bought three houses in Akila Estate in Nairobi and, “one house is in the name of her daughter, the other two houses are in the names of the late Wamalwa’s sons, William Junior and William Senior,” a family source explained.

Whenever she seeks financial help, Chichi claimed the response she often gets is “if you want to continue with school… if you want food, then sell the house”  and she now laments “all I did was to be born in the family…It is not like a job application where you have to send it in.” 

 Derek Mboya also added that, “we are not here because we have nothing.

“We are here because we do have enough,” and that “the people fighting against us are extremely influential and respected, they are on TV every day with the President or the Deputy President.” 

Their current state of affairs prompted Bumula MP Mwambu Mabongah to post that “every politician from our region often invokes late VP Wamalwa Kijana’s name; some do so for their political survival.

Wamalwa touched many lives but unfortunately his children have been abandoned. I’ll take the lead to ensure Chichi gets back to class.”

Kenyans remember Chichi as the young flower girl during the 2003 wedding between Yvonne Nambia and Kijana Wamalwa and presided over by Kitale Catholic Bishop Maurice Crowley and attended by then President Mwai Kibaki, First Lady Mama Lucy Kibaki, Raila Odinga and the entire Narc Cabinet.

Musikari Kombo was the best man, with his bitter political foe and Wamalwa’s cousin, Dr Mukhisa Kituyi, one of the groomsmen all donning morning coats.

Kibaki had a word of advice: “Women are not bad people. They sometimes behave like Kenyans, but they are not bad when you take good care of them!”

But six months after the grand wedding, Wamalwa died while undergoing treatment at the Royal Free Hospital in London.

Wamalwa was survived by Yvonne and six children from different wives. 

His estate comprised 40 acres in Trans Nzoia valued at Sh4 million, five acres in Milimani, Kitale valued at Sh500,000 and maize under cultivation on 300 acres in Kitale.

Wamalwa also owned a Mercedes Benz S300 and a Range Rover, held a bank account with Standard Chartered, owned 20 heads of cattle in Kitale and a death gratuity and pension under the Parliamentary Pensions Act.

Come 2004, his two sons, William Samuel and William Wamalwa Jr, through their sister Alice Muthoni, claimed Yvonne failed to account for Sh3.4 million that was in their father’s briefcase at the time of his death and Sh36.7 million released by Parliament as his pension scheme.   

According to papers filed in court, the two children were to receive Sh4 million each from their late father’s pension from the Parliament.

In 2005, the court issued Muthoni and Yvonne with limited grant to manage the estate but she still lamented to the court that her step-siblings were unable to continue with their studies after Yvonne failed to release school fees.

In a ruling delivered in 2013, Justice GBM Kariuki pointed out that Yvonne managed the estate like personal property and in breach of the law.

Through her lawyer Albert Khaminwa, Yvonne had told the court that she purchased apartments in Nairobi’s Akila Estate and took mortgages using the funds besides clearing her husband’s debts and living expenses and tuition fees for the beneficiaries.

She is said to have spent the money without the court’s permission.

To save the estate from being wasted, Justice Aggrey Muchelule ordered in 2015 that a public trustee be appointed to take over the management and warned the Director of Pensions against making any payments to Yvonne.

Following her husband’s death, Yvonne was appointed the Deputy Permanent Representative of Kenya to UN Habitat in Nairobi and later as Deputy High Commissioner to Australia.

Yvonne Wamalwa died in January 2018 in Nanyuki and was buried in Kitale, next to the former Vice President.

Kiminini MP Chris Wamalwa shocked Kenyans by claiming that she was fired by Jubilee and died a pauper and “because of her poor status, she could not afford medication and that is why she decided to go and stay with her sister in Nanyuki.”    

Musikari Kombo dismissed the Kiminini MP’s views as “utter garbage”.