Early last year, Kenyans were stunned when a 56-year-old woman moved to court to sue her step grandchild aged 24 for snatching her husband.
The family feud had reportedly been brewing for three years before spilling out. Grace Mwende accused Florence Nduku of insulting her through a chain of text messages after allegedly starting an intimate relationship with her husband, Daniel Mwongela, 61.
Nduku is facing six counts of misusing a communication gadget. Some of the text messages received between July 12, 2013 and early 2015 referred to Mwende as an “old hag” who “could not satisfy the old man” and that she lost her “sweetness a long time ago,” thus it was her (Nduku’s) turn to enjoy the old man’s “honey.”
She also reportedly insulted Mwende that she is a witch and husband snatcher who once sold herself in five-star hotels.
She denied the charges and was set free on a Sh100,000 cash bail or bond of Sh300,000 with a surety of a similar amount.
But in an unexpected turn of events, Nduku has changed her mind in court and confessed that Mwongela proposed to her and she was unhappy to share him with her granny Mwende.
“I acted out of anger and I’m very sorry. We were sharing a man with Mwende. He (Mwongela) had promised to marry me,” Nduku stated in her mitigation.
Their purported secret relationship came to light in 2011 just three months after Mwende, a boutique owner and Mwongela wedded in a church ceremony in Machakos.
Initially, Mwongela who worked in Malindi, used to visit Mwende in Nairobi on a monthly basis, but unknown to her, Nduku – who was one of her bridesmaids during their wedding – was also eyeing the old man.
Nduku worked at her grandmother’s boutique where her fight with a colleague over a man made her quit her job “to concentrate on her relationship with Mwongela” in what later escalated to insulting text messages directed at her grandmother.
Nduku told the court that she has been in an intimate relationship with Mwongela and it would be tiresome to appear in court daily.
Besides, she claimed to be in the process of preparing to leave the country for unknown reasons and hence her change of plea and stunning confession.
Nduku was fined Sh10,000 in five counts or serve three months in jail for all the counts. She was however discharged on one count, a ruling that Mwende claims to be ‘fishy,’ considering the initial bond terms.
“At the moment, I don’t have the heart to forgive Nduku for what she did to me. It hurts a lot and I don’t think I will even forgive her,” Mwende told The Nairobian.
According to Mwende, the text messages were gross and ruined her relationship with other family members and “some elders have since approached me that I ought to forgive her but it is hard because I raised her like my own.”
She added that, “The bitter part is how her father defended her and told me he is ready to receive dowry from Mwongela. For now, I will just take a break before embarking on the next course of action and probably find another option to seek justice
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