Swala Nyeti: Layman and Lawyer Discuss Legal Questions

My late father was an astute businessman, and when he died, I inherited shares in a company he owned with six of his college buddies. All of them are directors, but I am just a shareholder. 

The problem is that I discovered that these buddies are just milking the company for their own benefit. They recently sold some company land at a huge discount and I hear that the person who they sold to, gave them generous kickbacks but they left me out. 

Every time I bring these issues up during general meetings, I get voted against. I can’t allow this to be my father’s legacy. 

What can I do?

My wife and I have been running a hire purchase company for the last few years, but it has been a real struggle. Our company helps people buy cars. Many times their cheques will bounce or they will try to remove the tracker and hide the cars. Luckily our brother is an auctioneer, so he helps us recover and sell cars whose buyers have not been paying. Two months ago, we repossessed such a car. The buyer had given it to a Shylock and his cheques had been bouncing. Because of tough times of Corona, we only got 150k when we sold it, but even then there was a balance of 50k left since he had only paid 400 out of the 600k. How can we pursue him for the balance?

Nilipata tender to supply a nearby school with laptops. Huku kwetu we don’t have suppliers so nikaenda online to a popular ecommerce site and I found a good model. Nilibuy and they sent the first one which was very good n ahata na skiza podcast yenu nayo. 

So nikarudi nikamake order ya 50 pieces. Website ilesema out of stock for that supplier lakini wakarecommend another supplier with similar goods. Mimi nikalipa juu ni the same website lakini sasa vile wamedeliver nimeona these laptops ni 8GB na ya kwanza ilikuwa 16GB. 

Nimeshaa kula hiyo doo ya shule na wanataka laptops zao. Sa nitado?

I am a small scale farmer trying to grow tomatoes, but my neighbor will not let me prosper. 

He has started to rear pigs on his farm, right next to my tomatoes. But he is a chemist who I am told feeds his pigs with some drugs to make them grow faster and fatter. But the pigs are removing a very bad smell and waste and it is causing my tomatoes to dies. Only those tomatoes at the fence next to his are dying. 

I have asked him to move his pigs but he says he has built a high standard pig sty and he is not trespassing on my land so I should not bother him. 

Can the courts help me?

Four months ago my wife Janet and I welcomed a baby girl through a C-section at a local hospital. Unfortunately, recovery was very slow and Janet complained about her healing. She had been put on painkillers and given a cream but the wound would not properly heal. We were constantly going to the hospital. 

A few weeks ago we stopped a matatu by the side of the road, to carry us to hospital. Janet was very weak so we could not go to the normal bustop. The place we were boarding from is a blackspot and a car overtaking from the other side crashed into us. 

Unfortunately Janet died from her injuries. But the post-mortem also discovered that she had a surgical scalpel left in her from the C-section surgery. 

The matatu people are saying they won’t compensate because it was our fault. Is this true?

I work as a senior executive in a tech startup which has Silicon Valley investors.

In my role, I work with young energetic male engineers in demanding but rewarding assignments. It is normal that after work, we have drinks in the office bar, where I am happy to buy one or two for the guys.

One of my engineers at times would get carried away after drinks and made several sexual advances at me since I’m divorced. I didn’t encourage the flirts and always kept boundaries in the office. However in this male dominated industry I still hanged out with them because it helped me build their trust since they considered me as one of the boys.

In August, when travel had opened we went for a team building in the coast. As it came to an end I stayed behind for a few days and so did this engineer. In fact, I’m the one who approved his leave. One thing led to another and we slept together and several weeks afterwards we would meet at my place for sleep overs. Fast forward to last week, and out of the blue, I got a letter from HR being accused of sexually harassing this engineer. Can I be fired for this?

My husband and I need guidance. Two months ago we went to a bureau to hire a house-help. We were desperate and took the best in the group even though she wasn’t our preferred type.

A few weeks into her job, on a Sunday evening my husband said he couldn’t find an old laptop. He was sure he had kept it in our closet and suspected it was stolen. Earlier that morning the house-help had taken her off day and we figured she might have stolen it then. When she returned we asked her but she denied it and started insulting us with unprintable words.

I told my husband it would be safe to lock her up or she might turn violent. I told the watchmen not to let her leave and then we called the OCS who is our family friend. He sent some police who arrested her and detained her overnight. In the morning they released her on free bond, but she never came back home.

The police never found enough evidence so they did not charge her in court. However, the bureau called us recently and said a lawyer for the lady was asking for our details. Should we be worried?

My name is Angela, I am a grandmother taking care my seven month old grandson, whose mother is working out of the country. I recently moved into her flat which is in a gated community in Nairobi.

My issue is that there are neighbours who have been causing me sleepless nights since COVID lockdowns started. These young men and women party late into the night. Last week they started partying outside. They were roasting nyama choma, playing loud music, and smoking marijuana.

The noise meant that my grandson could not sleep and now he isn’t feeding well because of stress. Last night I went and asked them to stop, but they claimed they were helping the security to protect the houses from thieves who had been stealing things from the estate. Their music was to turn the thieves away and the roasting was to keep them awake, fed and warm.

I have asked the landlord but he is in agreement with them. The estate management on the other hand has ignored me. Can the court help me?

Today’s episode is from a previous discussion on what entails defamation.

Good day. My name is JB, I used to be the CEO of a farmers sacco in my village, but I quit to start my own real-estate company which is doing very well.

Six months after I quit, the new management did some bad investments and the sacco collapsed.

Now a few days ago a famous blogger shared an article titled Farmers robbed by Pyramid Schemes on his whatsapp status. What was shocking was that he used an old photo of mine from the Sacco Facebook page. I did not see the status but a screenshot of it was shared in our family whatsapp group.

Now my relatives have been calling me asking me if “niliyang’anya wakulima pesa”.

I am distressed with all this negative publicity. Even my bank has now refused to approve a loan I requested and the blogger has refused to pick my calls.

What can I do?

This episode was first aired on September 22nd, 2020.

Three years ago, my ex-girlfriend and I were involved in an accident. I was riding my motorbike and she was a pillion passenger. We were heading to visit my mother who had called me that morning asking me to come see her.

The accident happened because my girlfriend kept nagging me and saying bad things about my mother. She claimed I was a mama’s boy and not a man. This made me angry and as I turned to tell her to shut up, a lorry swerved in our lane and I crashed into it. Luckily none of us were injured except for a few scratches but my motorbike was a write off.

After that day, she broke up with me but the accident left me stressed. I keep waking up at night having nightmares. I can no longer eat well or focus on my job. I think she should pay for what she did to me. Are there any options in law?