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.

“I do not owe any duty to the plaintiff as claimed as he has never been my business partner, and I have never entered into any partnership agreement with the plaintiff,” the senior Kirima says in the affidavit.

Claris Ogangah, a lawyer working with women’s lobby Fida, says it is essential for Kenyans, particularly those in their sunset years, to make clear their plans for inheritance to people who feel entitled to a share of their wealth.

“It is advisable for everyone, regardless of the property in their possession, to leave behind a will that details how the property will be divided among the survivors,” Ms Ogangah said.

No legal remedy has been advanced, however, for the delicate issue of children demanding to take over their living parents’ property.

A number of people who spoke to the Sunday Nation but sought anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said their reasons for not surrendering control of their wealth was the suspicion that their sons want to squander it.

“When you have not toiled for something, it is unlikely that you will treasure it and take care of it like the one who worked hard for it,” said a businessman with extensive interests in real estate in Nairobi.

While he was alive, businessman Samuel Mbugua Githere, whose fortune is believed to be worth hundreds of millions, is reported in his autobiography to have been fond of reminding his children that his money belonged to him and his wife. Today, his estate is at the centre of a court battle.

Succession plans

However, others say such fears are misplaced, citing the relative success with which many business people of South Asian origin have drawn up succession plans.

“Gone are the days when men used to run businesses single-handedly oblivious of the fact that whatever they had worked for many years would go down with them simply because they did not have a succession plan in place,” said Peter Kinya, a prominent Nakuru businessman .

Mr Kinya is the owner of Petmary Limited — a newspaper distribution company — Excite Telecommunication Limited, a UUNET dealer, and a farmer.

He says he has delegated most of the duties at his companies to his sons and his wife.

Mr Kinya says his clients or suppliers do not have to follow him to his hospital bed to sign cheques because there are other people who can run the family business.

“Our old men die on the job because they did not teach their children how to run the businesses, They have money, but they cannot go on a holiday lest the business collapse,” he said.

An unusual aspect of the cases in court is that personal details like the health of the protagonists are being discussed publicly. These matters were hitherto kept from public scrutiny in African society.

Another problem that has led to court cases is that some pre-independence businessmen went into joint ventures with their age-mates under unclear contracts.

Today their children are involved in court battles over the distribution of the wealth left behind. In part of downtown Nairobi, known as little Murang’a, some businesses have been closed as children fight it out in court after the death of their parents.

It is the same story in other towns in Kenya. Legal experts say the courts are likely to be swamped with suits in the next 10 years when men who made their wealth more than six decades ago exit the scene.

Another source of property disputes is that a good number of wealthy businessmen and politicians are married to several women under arrangements that are bound to be contested in court.

In some of the cases, the family of the first wife feels that they worked with their father to create the wealth and consider the younger wives and their families latecomers seeking to board the gravy train.

Prominent families

Some of the children of prominent families involved in court battles include those of former minister Mbiyu Koinange whose offspring are fighting over prime property in Nairobi.

Others include the families of the late minister, Stanley Oloitiptip, former Kisumu Rural MP Wycliffe Onyango Ayoki and Lerionka ole Ntutu.

The disputes, experts say, illustrate the need for older Kenyans to systematically address questions revolving around inheritance. Some of the properties at the centre of court battles include business enterprises, land and buildings on prime locations in towns.

Also at stake are bank accounts believed to hold money running into hundreds of millions.

In other court cases, children of some of the most prominent and wealthy Kenyan families are battling over how to distribute property because their fathers did not leave behind wills.

In others, daughters say they have been locked out of their parents’ property by their brothers and paternal relatives.

In the case of the late Githere, step brothers and sisters are fighting over the management of their late father’s estate which is worth about Sh100 million.

The dispute is between children of the second wife and those of the third.

The children of the second wife moved to court seeking to nullify a letter of administration given to their step brothers and sisters saying it was done without their knowledge.

— Additional reporting by Daniel Wesangula and Charles Wanyoro