The court battle between Mama Ida Odinga and her daughter-in-law Lwam Bekele has yet again exposed late Fidel Odinga's private life.
Lwam, Fidel's widow, had moved to court objecting decision to contest her right as sole administrator of Fidel's estate, naming Ida and Winnie Odinga as respondents.
In the court papers, the name of anonymous woman, Phoebe Akinyi surfaces, with the family of the late eldest son of opposition leader Raila Odinga seemingly being aware of her.
Mama Ida claims that the woman sired twins, a boy and a girl, six months after Fidel's death. Details about her relationship with Fidel are however scanty.
Ida claims that she has been taking care of Phoebe's children and now wants them to be named as dependants of Fidel Odinga's vast estate.
“The petitioner has deliberately failed to include and provide or otherwise show the intention of providing for the said minors hence a red flag on her intentions,” Ida said.
However, Bekele through her lawyers termed her mother-in-law's assertions as a concoction of facts given that the said twins were born six months after Fidel's death.
“In the birth certificates attached to the affidavit in support of the cross-petition, there is no indication of the father of the said minors. The said birth certificates do not thus prove paternity of the minors,” Bekele said.
She rubbishes Ida’s arguments that Fidel supported the twins yet they had not been born at the time of his death.
“It’s evident that the objector’s pleadings in relation to the claims therein are inconsistent, disjointed, incoherent and can best be described as a concoction of facts. It remains inconceivable how the deceased supported minors even before they were born,” Bekele argues.
Fidel survived with only one known child Allay Raila Odinga, who was introduced during his burial in 2015. Nothing much is known about Phoebe Akinyi.