A grieving family from Tongaren, Bungoma County, has been double-victimized by a rogue lawyer who exploited their vulnerability following the fatal road accident death of their kin, Job Simiyu Wafula, in Kirinyaga County on 24th January 2026.
Hudson Sitati Wamukota, an advocate operating under the unregistered firm Hudson Sitati & Company Advocates, induced David Wanjala Siundu and his family to pay him in excess of Ksh. 1.5 million over approximately two months, falsely representing that the claims would yield a minimum of Ksh. 20 million in compensation. No formal retainer, client brief, or fee agreement was ever executed as required under the Advocates Act.
The consequences have been devastating. Esther Naliaka, wife of David Wanjala, died on Wednesday morning from hypertension she developed in April upon discovering the family had been defrauded—making the lawyer’s conduct the proximate cause of a second death in the same household. Her body is lying in the Kiminini Hospital mortuary. The family shop business they relied upon has been closed over diminished stock.
Wamukota has since acknowledged obtaining the funds but has offered only excuses in place of a refund. Complaints lodged with both the Advocates Complaints Commission and the Law Society of Kenya have thus far been met with an inexcusably slow response, leaving the family without redress while facing compounded grief and financial ruin.
The Consumers Federation of Kenya has now formally intervened, demanding accountability through all available civil, criminal, disciplinary, and constitutional avenues. COFEK lawyers have since taken up the Kerugoya fatal accident matter.
