Thirty-two years on, Koinange family fights over estate as brokers profit

The 32-year-old court battle for control of the multi-billion-shilling estate amassed by former Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange stands out as possibly Kenya’s most intriguing family dispute.

Eight years ago, Court of Appeal judge Martha Koome, then a High Court judge, described the incessant wrangles among the Koinange kin and their lawyers as an unending circus.

“I am sorry to state that going through this court file and the tactics employed by the parties and their advocates can only be likened to the classical theatre of the absurd,” said Lady Justice Koome in a ruling she delivered on January 28, 2005.

She added: “It is a shame that 24 years after the death, there seems to be no end in sight. Numerous applications and consent orders have been recorded but very little progress has been made towards the distribution of the estate to the beneficiaries.”

At stake is an estate involving some of the country’s most prime land holdings – including 291 acres in the heart of the prestigious Runda estate and thousands more in the Rift Valley – and shares in some of the nation’s top firms.

Big names including top politicians have been roped into the ever-expanding web with no end in sight to the litigation involving Mr Koinange’s widows and 18 children.

Conservative estimates place the value of the property at Sh10 billion, but the real value is believed to be far higher.

The case has meant that many of the Koinange family members, in Justice Koome’s words, “cannot access their requisite share to enable them get on with their lives and thereby lost opportunities in life”.

She noted that the beneficiaries from the estate would like the status quo to prevail.

For three decades since Succession suit No 527 was filed in court in 1981 to resolve the distribution of the properties to the beneficiaries of the powerful minister, little progress has been made to resolve the dispute.

Nearly all the judges in the High Court and Court of Appeal, save for those recently recruited, have in one way or the other dealt with the Koinange succession suit, including those who have retired or were sent home by the Judges and Magistrates Vetting Board.

Parallel suits

Among them are Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal, who was elevated to the position of Deputy Chief Justice, and Lady Justice Koome, Justice GBM Kariuki and Justice David Maraga all of whom were moved to the Court of Appeal.

Equally, more than 50 parallel suits have emerged from the day the main succession case was lodged in court, attracting the highest turnover of lawyers.
Currently, more than 15 lawyers are appearing in court representing the widows, children and other personalities purported to have bought various of the estate’s prime assets without the knowledge of some of the family members.

Some lawyers have also been accused of holding hundreds of millions of shillings belonging to the estate, while one is said to have literally run away with a title deed and cannot be traced.

A a hearing of the case two weeks ago, lawyer Justry Nyaberi, representing one of the beneficiaries, pleaded with Justice William Musyoka to order advocate Jane Muthoni Njage to deposit in court the title of the controversial 4,296- acre Muthera Farm in Mau Narok, Nakuru County, pending the determination of the dispute.

The application was made after lawyers raised the red flag fearing the land may have been disposed of without the knowledge or consent of the court and the beneficiaries.

“We have made efforts to look for the lawyer, but she cannot be traced. She no longer operates in her previous offices, and nobody appears to know of her whereabouts,” submitted Mr Nyaberi.

The lawyer informed Justice Musyoka that there existed a court order issued by Lady Justice Rawal when she was a High Court judge maintaining the status quo of the property until the determination of the succession battle.

Allowing the application, Justice Musyoka directed that the title be deposited in court and the advocate to be notified through a notice in one of the local daily newspapers.

According to the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) website, Ms Njage has not renewed her practising certificate for 2012 and 2013. Her status reads “Inactive”.

Ms Njage, Mr Waweru Gatonye and Mr Taibjee Bhalla Advocates were involved in the transaction of the purported sale of Muthera farm to Kiambu Governor William Kabogo for Sh214.8 million, and now the administrators want the court to annul the alleged sale.

The legal tussle between Mr Kabogo and a section of the family members is yet to be determined in court after an undertaking made by Charterhouse Bank to secure the sale proceeds collapsed when the institution was put under stautory management by the Central Bank of Kenya.

Mr Kabogo is entangled in yet another court battle over the alleged purchase of a Sh2 billion plot belonging to the estate located next to the Reinsurance Plaza building in Nairobi.

One of the Koinange sons, Mr George Kihara, said the proposed sale of Muthera farm was a complete fraud, and he wants the court to remain in control of the lucrative asset and refuse to allow any alienation until all issues concerning the land are fully determined.

“Our worst fears that the ‘sale’ was just a bubble schemed by the administrators was confirmed when we learnt that Waweru Gatonye and Company Advocates conveyed the farm to Impulse Development Company without the purchase price being paid to the estate,” said Mr Kihara. Impulse Development is a company associated with Mr Kabogo.

Being the priciest among the assets of the estate, Muthera Farm and the multi-million-shilling city plot next to Reinsurance Plaza, have been the most controversial of all the properties owned by Mbiyu Koinange. Suits and counter-suits have been filed in court, but none has been resolved.

The Muthera Farm has witnessed the highest degree of controversy, including the shooting to death of former farm manager-turned-land activist Moses Lesiamon ole Mpoe and subsequent murder charges brought against Mbiyu Koinange’s wife Eddah Wanjiru and son David Njunu.

Mr Njunu and his mother, who are also among the court-appointed administrators of the estate, are out on a Sh1 million cash bail awaiting the hearing of the criminal case in Nakuru.

To secure his freedom pending trial, Mr Njunu told Nakuru High Court judge William Ouko on January 28, 2011 that he was over 70 years old and with multiple ailments which required constant medication and a doctor’s attention.

He said his condition had deteriorated after his incarceration in prison remand.

Shortly before the death of ole Mpoe, the High Court in Nakuru had issued an order restraining him from managing the farm, but the court order, according to Kihara’s sworn statement, could not be served on the land activist due to collusion and rivalry among the family members.

After he was appointed by the court to manage the urban assets of the estate following the death of his brother Isaac Njunu, Mr Kihara, in his maiden visit to the farm, survived death narrowly after he was viciously attacked by pastoralists who had invaded the land.

Stomach slit

“My fingers were amputated, my stomach was slit, and I sustained other bodily injuries. It’s just by the grace of God that I survived the ordeal to tell the tale,” said Mr Kihara.

In a letter to the presiding judge of the family division last year, Chief Justice Willy Mutunga wondered why the case had been pending in court for years.

The CJ expressed fears that “some parties and their advocates seem to be benefiting from the status quo”.

The lawyers currently on record in the succession suit are: Justry Nyaberi, P.M. Kamaara, Maina Nyangena, Beatrice Kariuki, Boniface Njiru and Alice Wahome.

Others include Muriu Mungai, Cecil Miller, Dally & Figgis Advocates, Ashford Muriuki Mugwuku, Kimani Kiarie, Wandaka and Company, Waweru Gatonye, Nelson Havi and Kang’ethe Waitere.