“Ever since, I have faced obstacles, threats, assaults, and malicious damage to property from the stepchildren, who, despite the court’s judgment, do not recognise me as the administrator of the estate and the surviving spouse,” he told the court.
He also stated that he had offered a fair distribution of the estate, which the stepchildren do not appreciate, and through external forces or third parties, they have vowed to prevent him from entering the property.
Mr Shiels further stated that he engaged the services of Mr Ntongai, whose attempt to gain access to the building was thwarted, despite being accompanied by police officers.
He therefore sought break-in orders to enable him to inspect the state of repair, take inventory, and maintain control of the premises as outlined in the distribution list per the certificate of confirmation of grant issued to him on December 17, 2021.
Ms Njoki died on January 21, 2018, when she was run over by a vehicle allegedly driven by the foreigner along the Thalathameli-Kaoyeni road in the Ganda area of Kilifi County.
Initially, Mr Shiels faced traffic offence charges, but after years of investigations, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) revised the charge and upgraded it to murder.
The traffic offence was withdrawn from the Malindi Court two weeks before the murder charge was filed. Mr Shiels was accused of causing death by dangerous driving.
Ms Njoki and Mr Shiels are alleged to have had a disagreement before the incident.
This disagreement led the woman to flee and board Mr Kahindi’s motorbike.
It was alleged that the foreigner then pursued and ran over them after knocking them down.
Ms Njoki was pronounced dead upon arrival at a Malindi hospital.
A postmortem examination revealed that she had died from haemorrhagic shock due to head injuries.
Documents filed in court revealed that a heated property dispute arose between Mr Shiels, Njoki’s ex-husband Amos Okoth Oluoch, and her children shortly after her death.
The woman’s children, Mr Otieno and Ms Akinyi, along with her relatives, contested the foreigner’s claim to the property they believed belonged to their mother.
In a case filed in 2018, Mr Oluoch sued Mr Shiels over the ownership of the property valued at millions of shillings.
Mr Oluoch argued in the case that despite their separation, their marriage had not been formally dissolved, and therefore he was still her legal husband, as they had been married under Luo customary law in 1981.
“We separated but never divorced, so I am her dependent,” he stated.
However, he did not provide evidence to support this claim of a marriage conducted under Luo customary law.
The court still assumed that they were married, as they had lived together for over 10 years and had two children.
Evidence presented in the case showed that after Oluoch and Njoki separated, she married Mr Shiels, and they lived together for a few more years before her death in 2018.
Court documents also indicate that the foreigner paid a dowry to the woman’s parents in a marriage under the Gikuyu customary law.
During the marriage with the foreigner, the couple acquired properties in Malindi worth millions of shillings.
However, Mr Oluoch referred to the foreigner as a “casual” boyfriend who took advantage of their separation to date her.