Auctioneers obtain a break-in order to MP Kihara's house, recover Sh7.5 million

Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara during the Kenya Women Parliamentary Association meeting with Health NGOs Network on April 4, 2025. [Standard, Kanyiri Wahito]

The High Court has allowed auctioneers to break into the house of Naivasha MP Jayne Kihara and auction her property to recover over Sh7.5 million owed to former MP John Mututho.

Justice Julius Nangea allowed Mututho to use Impair Group of Companies auctioneers to break and gain access to Ms Kihara’s home in Maraigushu, Naivasha.

He ordered the OCS Naivasha Police Station to supervise the break-in and ensure there is compliance, peace, and security during the exercise.

“The applicant (Mututho) shall serve this order upon the OCS for the provision of necessary security as directed,” ruled Nangea.

The judge, in his ruling, noted that a certificate of cost had been issued in favour of Mututho, who is also the former Nacada Chair.

He noted that MP Kihara incurred part of the costs she was hit with on December 19, 2019, and September 20, 2023, after losing an election petition to Mututho, but she defaulted on over Sh7.5 million.

According to Nangea, Kihara was frustrating the execution of the long-pending decree for no good cause.

“No orders are suspending the execution of the decree issued, and the pending appeal is no reason to stop the execution proceedings,” he ruled.

Further, the judge ruled that previous courts of similar jurisdictions had pronounced themselves on the issues raised by Kihara, and his court had no jurisdiction to revisit them.

Despite the court noting that Mututho did not describe the properties sought to be attached and their locations, he ruled that if aggrieved by his ruling, Kihara should appeal the same.

Mututho filed the case on January 18, 2024, seeking the break-in order to implement the judgment of December 19, 2019.

He deposed that in the judgment, the court awarded him Sh7.52 million, as tax cost for winning an Election Petition against Kihara, filed in 2008.

“By another ruling of September 20, 2023, the court disapproved the respondent’s (Kihara) conduct and issued warrants of attachment and sale of her property to recover Sh9.89 million,” submitted Mututho.

He said that Kihara had filed several applications in an attempt to frustrate the execution and had adamantly refused to pay the decretal amount.

He said that Kihara reached out to his auctioneers on November 10, 2023, and claimed she was willing to discuss payment terms, but nothing came out of the initiative.

Further, Mututho said that on October 18, 2023, his auctioneers went to Kihara’s premises to execute the court orders, but they were violently turned away by security guards.

“Fresh warrants of attachments were issued on November 29, 2023, and on December 11, 2023, but they could not be executed owing to the same violent resistance,” said Mututho.

In response, Kihara submitted that the cost of the petition was awarded after her petition was struck out on a technicality.

She opined that had the Supreme Court been established by then (2008), it would have cancelled the decision.

She deposed that the ruling following which the certificate of cost was issued was fatally defective, and aggrieved, she filed an appeal, and her application was allowed.

“My plea for the stay of execution of the decree was, however, met with very inconvenient stay orders that resulted in me remitting Sh2.97 million to Mututho,” she deposed.

She denied that she had a homestead in Maraigushu, contending that the place is only a general area.

She urged the court to suspend the execution until her appeal was heard and determined. Her prayers were dismissed.