Dr. Ben Okumu is fighting to keep his family’s home after it was taken from him in a questionable foreclosure process and sold at auction to a new buyer. That new buyer has been attempting to evict Okumu for months, with the next eviction hearing set to take place on April 25. However, he hopes to have that hearing adjourned so he can have more time to find legal representation. Additionally, he hopes that a New York State Supreme Court ruling will prove that the foreclosure was improperly conducted and return the property to its longtime owner.

In 2009 the Ithaca community rallied around the Okumu Family by raising more than $20,000 to help them cover the costs of preventing a foreclosure on their home at 112 Maplewood Drive in the City of Ithaca after Nancy Okumu — wife to Dr. Ben Okumu and mother of their four children — passed away in a severe car accident in Nairobi, Kenya.

The rest of the family have been able to overcome their injuries, but Dr. Okumu says that he continues to struggle from injuries to his leg and foot that were sustained in the crash. He says that he has only been able to receive the medical treatment necessary to keep him alive in Kenya. As a result, he has been forced to travel between the U.S. and Kenya every six months in order to maintain his legal residency status in the U.S. — where his children have continued to live.

According to Okumu — who is an economic advisor for the Kenyan government — the combination of his wife passing away along with the costs associated with frequently traveling between the United States and Kenya resulted in him falling behind on mortgage payments on the home that his family have lived in since 2002.

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