How the super wealthy couples untie the knot

 The world was surprised when, a few days ago, Bill and Melinda Gates announced that they were divorcing after 27 years of marriage. Theirs seemed like the kind of marriage that stands the test of time. After all, how many couples are able to harmoniously work together on a common goal for years, one that involved giving away a big chunk of the wealth they had created over the years to charity?

Various studies show that one of the foremost causes of disharmony in marriage is disagreements over money – for instance, not having enough of it, not agreeing on what to do with it, or making deceitful transactions behind your partner’s back, rather than using it to meet one’s responsibilities within marriage.

Whoever said that money cannot buy you happiness was probably talking from experience – couples that have little of it and those who have it by the bucketful still go separate ways. One can therefore argue that having lots of money is not the only recipe for a happy marriage, because if it were, then all rich couples would stay together until death does them part.

One of Kenya’s most high profile divorce must be that between Samuel Gichuru, the long-serving former Kenya Power and Lighting Company boss, and his wife, the late Salome Njeri. Gichuru, who was at the helm of Kenya Power for 20 years, was a wealthy man, but the extent of his wealth, and the corrupt manner in which he amassed it, was only revealed when he filed for divorce from his wife after 39 years of marriage.

Determined to get her deserved share of the matrimonial property, Ms Njeri filed a case in 2006 seeking equal share of the matrimonial property, and listed a number of properties, shares and bank accounts owned by Gichuru, which she said were just a tiny fraction of what the couple had acquired over the years, claiming that Gichuru operated a number of secret offshore accounts.

Accounts frozen

These claims are what prompted further investigations by Jersey authorities, who had earlier frozen bank accounts associated with Gichuru following a suspicious transaction report. Gichuru could end up behind bars for 14 years if extradited to Jersey and found guilty of the corruption and money laundering.

Another bitter and messy divorce that took the limelight is that between Philip Moi, the late former President Daniel Moi’s son, and his ex-wife Rossana Pluda. In February this year, reports Business Daily, the High Court summoned the commander of Nairobi’s Muthaiga Police Station to explain why a warrant of arrest against Philip had not been made – the story explained that Philip, 54, was being sought over a Sh1.8 million debt arising from his acrimonious divorce a decade ago.

Read: Jonathan, Lena and the untold story of Moi’s troubled family

 Philip was briefly held in 2012 for failing to pay his estranged wife Pluda maintenance, which had then accumulated to more than Sh8 million. He had been fighting a court order directing him to pay Sh250,000 monthly maintenance to Ms Pluda. That same year, in 2012, Philip moved to court seeking to be declared bankrupt, arguing that he was unable to pay his accumulated debts.

Another case that got Kenyans talking is that of Uasin Gishu tycoon, Jackson Kibor, 86, who filed for divorce from his third wife three years ago after 43 years of marriage, citing cruelty and lack of affection. Barely a year before this, he had divorced his second wife of 52 years. Kibor’s first wife died in 2010. When his latest divorce was granted, the wealthy farmer, who is estimated to be worth Sh6 billion, joked that he could finally put on some weight, and vowed not to marry again, saying he was happy with his fourth wife, Yunita Kibor.

Drawing from Mr Kibor’s case, wealth is not a guarantee for a happy marriage, second or third time round. Another public divorce case that kept Kenyans on social media busy for weeks is that between Uasin Gishu Woman Rep Gladys Boss and her then husband Sam Shollei, then the Standard Group MD. The marriage between the two, who married in 1994, was dissolved in 2020.

In intriguing court cases that lifted a lid on the two failed marriages of former Machakos Senator Johnston Muthama, his two ex-wives went to court claiming a share of his multi-million-shilling estate long after their marriages to Muthama had been dissolved. In 2020, the Court of Appeal dismissed an application by one of his ex-wife — Joyce Nzisa— who has five children with Muthama, claiming a share of various properties she says they acquired during .the duration of their marriage.

The properties listed in the application included real estate, shares in various firms, vehicles and a company that dealt with gemstones. What is interesting is that Muthama filed for divorce from Ms Nzisa in1991, prompting her to seek a cross-petition for a dissolution of the marriage. In 1992, she however, signed a memorandum of settlement withdrawing the divorce case. The document also had her give up a share of the matrimonial home in Lavington as well as property in Runda. 

But Ms Nzisa would return to court in 2014 to have the document amended, claiming that she got a raw deal. The following year, the court threw out the petition, citing the agreement she had signed. But not about to give up, last year, she sought the intervention of the Court of Appeal, but her application was dismissed.

Marriage ‘too restrictive’

In 2019, the High Court ruled that another of Muthama’s ex-wives, Agnes Kavindu, who divorced Muthama in 1983 following their marriage in 1978, was not entitled to any property the former senator owned, including a house in Mua, Machakos County, where Muthama said she had been living out of his goodwill.

Read: Estranged lovers go for the millions when their marriage hits the rocks

Last year, billionaire Chris Kirubi, in an interview with comedian Churchill Ndumbuki, said he got divorced because he found marriage “too restrictive”. He said, “I was outgoing, I wanted freedom but my wife was conservative. People are born different, maybe we were not two of a kind —  one has to be happy and to enjoy it. It was too restrictive for me, going home at particular times.”

Remember controversial Nigerian businessman Anthony Chinedu and his wife Joyce Akinyi? When the acrimonious marriage came to an end, Chinedu moved to court to claim a share of the multi-million property he claimed to have acquired with his estranged wife. He was awarded the majority of the matrimonial property, estimated to be more than Sh100 million. The two, who met in 1998, formalised their marriage in 2004 having cohabited for a number of years. They had two children together. Among the properties they were fighting for were parcels of land in Nairobi valued at Sh36 million, rental houses and several high-end cars.

Further afield, the world of celebrities is littered with divorce

Splits between super wealthy couples are common in the West. Here are some of the high profile ones

*In 2010, golf legend Tiger Woods and his ex-wife, Elin Nordegren, who married in 2004, went through a highly public divorce following a sex scandal, with Woods publicly confessing his infidelity.

*In 2011, Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife of 25 years, Maria Shriver, split after revelations that Schwarzenegger had fathered a child with their domestic staff.

*In 2011, screen great Mel Gibson, his wife of almost 30 years divorced following accusations of infidelity – Gibson had been photographed in an embrace with Russian singer and songwriter Oksana Grigorieva, with whom he would go on to have a baby, only to go through an acrimonious split.

* Rupert Murdoch and his former wife Anna Mann divorced after 32 years in 1999. Seventeen days after the divorce was finalised, Rupert wed Wendi Deng, but the two would go on to divorce in 2013, ending their 14-year marriage.

*Another divorce that made headlines is that of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and ex-wife MacKenzie Scott in 2019 – she has since remarried. The two have four children.

*Former basketball player Michael Jordan and his wife Juanita Vanoy filed for divorce in 2002, and though they reconciled shortly after, in 2006, they filed for divorce again.