Dying for justice: Cancer patient’s fight for Sh3 million court payout

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A 58-year-old widow in Mwingi North, Kitui county, is battling cancer and mounting distress as she issues an urgent appeal for help.

Wainji Maluki, from the Katuuni area, lost her husband, Silas Maluki, then aged 48, in a 2012 road accident.

Although a court in Makindu, Makueni county, awarded her Sh3 million in compensation in 2019, she claims she has yet to receive a single penny of the decreed amount.

Speaking to the media at her home last week, Wainji alleged that the law firm representing her has not released an initial Sh1.5 million already deposited into their account.

Documents seen by The Star show that the insurer of the matatu involved in the January 2012 crash deposited Sh1.5 million into the firm’s account. An equal amount was placed in a joint interest-earning account per the 2019 court ruling.

Wainji is now appealing for intervention to access the funds. In a cruel twist of fate, after exhausting her savings and selling assets to pursue the legal case, she was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2020. The combined financial toll of litigation and medical care has left her destitute.

“Previously, I ran shops selling clothes and cereals. I had to close them because I spent everything pursuing the case after my husband’s death,” she said. “I have been reduced to a pauper, surviving on the charity of well-wishers. I am ill and can no longer work to fend for my family,” added the mother of eight.

Wainji revealed she was forced to sell prime properties, including a developed plot at Kamuwongo market and a large portion of her farmland. She now fears for her life after being forced to stop her fortnightly cancer treatments in Nairobi, which cost Sh82,000 per session.

“I need assistance from the government, elected leaders, or well-wishers. I need my compensation paid so I can complete my treatment before the worst happens,” she said through tears.

Her youngest child was also forced to drop out of Mitunguu National Vocational Training Centre, where he was studying office administration, due to unpaid fees.

Silas Maluki died on 24 January 2012, when a public service vehicle he was traveling in rammed into a trailer on the Nairobi–Mombasa Highway.