NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 31 – Drama unfolded at a city restaurant on Tuesday when controversial businesswoman Joyce Akinyi confronted her estranged husband Antony Chinedu, slapped him and hurled insults at him.
Ms Akinyi, who arrived in Kenya at the weekend from India where she spent six months in jail alongside former Assistant Minister Raphael Wanjala, lashed out at the Nigerian as he was speaking to reporters and went on to accuse him of being responsible for the troubles she underwent in India.
She was incensed by Mr Chinedu’s remarks to journalists that the disputed property "must be shared equally among them."
"Akinyi has been my wife for 10 years. We accumulated property with her, there is no problem in sharing it. That is what I want, but she does not," Mr Chinedu said before Ms Akinyi confronted him and started insulting him.
"Chinedu has been celebrating because I was away. He took over my property when I was in India but now that I am back, he must vacate," she said.
The latest controversy between the two follows Mr Chinedu’s decision to lease the New Deep West Resort Club to a local investor.
When asked why he leased the property, Mr Chinedu said: "This is our business. There was nothing wrong in leasing it because it had been neglected. Workers had not been paid and the place was in a total mess."
On her part, Ms Akinyi said Mr Chinedu was trying to defraud her of the property, which is one among many at the centre of an ownership tussle between the two.
On arrival from India, Ms Akinyi said that she found the property under the management of a businessman, whom she has vowed to evict.
On Tuesday morning, police officers from various units stormed the premise and conducted a raid, in an apparent search for contraband goods.
Lang’ata divisional Police chief Patrick Mang’oli said that they were looking for various items, including illicit drugs.
"We were looking for many things, including drugs but in the process we have found some motorcycle tyres which have been surrendered to the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) for verification," he said.
During the search that lasted three hours, Mr Chinedu and Ms Akinyi – who have divorced proceedings pending in court – were present.
The police later towed away two vehicles, which were found parked in the compound.
"These vehicles do not appear genuine and that is why we have taken them for further inspection," Mr Mang’oli said.
Ms Akinyi and Mr Wanjala were detained at New Delhi’s airport in September last year for failing to declare Sh7.5 million that they were carrying in hard cash.
Ms Akinyi said that they were both released following the intervention of former Foreign Affairs Minister Raphael Tuju.
"It is Tuju who helped us, it is not Prime Minister Raila Odinga or Foreign Affairs Minister Moses Wetangula," she said and narrated how she ‘led a comfortable life in the Indian jail’.
"Indian jails are very nice. I was in a self-contained room. That place is not like Kenya. There is no congestion there and we even ate good food," she said in reference to the time she spent at India’s largest Prison in Tihar.
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