Blood wars: Fathers and sons battle it out for family wealth

• Cases of property disputes involving relatives are piling up in the courts

A silent war over property pitting children against their ageing wealthy parents is raging in Kenya.

The battle is largely being fought in the courts where children of wealthy individuals have filed cases seeking a share of their parents’ property while their elders are still alive. However, reports show that some disputes are turning violent.

One such case ended in tragedy two weeks ago when a man in his 50s was arrested in Igoji, Meru, after he slashed his son to death in a succession dispute. Neighbours said the man had clashed with his son after the son demanded a share of the father’s property.

Although property disputes are a common fixture in the courts, children suing their living parents for a share of their wealth is a new phenomenon.

Interviews with children of parents who acquired their wealth in the 1950s and 1960s reveal bitter discontent with what they say is the meanness of their fathers who are in their late 70s and 80s.

Sunset years

But the men who are entering their sunset years say their offspring should work for their own wealth rather than merely wait in the wings to claim their fathers’ riches.

The most recent case involves former Starehe MP and city tycoon Gerishon Kirima and his 52-year-old son, Wanjau Kirima.

The younger Kirima is demanding a share of rental income from five properties in Nairobi. He is seeking court orders to be allowed to jointly collect rental income with his father.

In his sworn affidavit, he says his father is his business partner in Kirima & Sons, which trades as land and estate agents, auctioneers and general merchants. He claims that his father, who is over 80 years old, suffers from health complications, and that his condition has deteriorated.

“He is currently diabetic and suffers from prostate cancer, is impaired on one eye with less than 50 per cent vision in the other eye” the younger Kirima says in the affidavit.

He said that his father’s poor health coupled with the fact that he is semi-illiterate makes him completely unable to run and manage the affairs of the partnership.

The younger Kirima further says in the affidavit that his father has wilfully or otherwise delegated all his responsibilities, including signatories to the partnership’s bank accounts, to other parties who have no proprietary interests.

For his part, the elder Kirima says that he acquired his property alone and accuses his son of having forged the documents he (the son) is using to support his claims.

He says that except for the fact that the plaintiff is his son, he has no idea how the properties he is now claiming to own were acquired.

The senior Kirima says that he acquired one of the properties his son is claiming in Njiru in 1972 when his son was 15 and the second on Moktar Daddah Street in Nairobi in 1974 when his son was 17.

The third property in dispute is located in Embakasi and was acquired in 1973 when his son was 16, the senior Kirima says. The affidavit further says that the fourth property also in Njiru was acquired in 1967 while the fifth in Pangani was purchased 1973.

“He has never invested any money whatsoever in the said property and business,” the senior Kirima says.