Sh10 billion estate to be finally shared among kin from February

After more than three decades in court, the estimated Sh10 billion estate of the late Mbiyu Koinange will finally be distributed to the family members.

A lawyer involved in the 33-year-old succession dispute on Saturday confirmed the case has been concluded and what is being awaited is the judgement on how the properties will be shared among the beneficiaries, with indications of a February 2015 date. 

The polygamous former minister in President Jomo Kenyatta’s government died without a valid will on February 13, 1981, leaving behind four wives, 18 children, two grandchildren and other dependants.

Subsequently, the family lodged the succession suit No 527 of 1981 to resolve the distribution of the properties but incessant wrangles have seen the case stuck in court for more than three decades.

On March 22, 1993, the High Court appointed Koinange’s eldest son David Njuno and widows Ruth Damaris Wambui, Margaret Njeri and Eddah Wanjiru as the administrators of the estate.

DISPUTED ASSETS
At the centre of the dispute are prime land holdings including 291 acres in Runda estate and thousands more in the Rift Valley and shares in some of the country’s top corporate firms.

The disputed assets include the controversial 4,296-acre Muthera Farm in Mau Narok, Nakuru County, and an undeveloped plot in the CBD worth about Sh2 billion located next to the Reinsurance Plaza building.

There are also shares in various companies including the Theita Group, Industrial and Commercial Development Corporation (ICDC), Magadi Soda, and two prime plots in Kiambu.

Others include Njuno Farm in Ol Kalou in Nyandarua County and 32,000 shares in the Koinange Investment and Development Company.

The estate owned 291 acres of prime land in Closeburn Estate in Runda, 100 acres of which was sold by the family members to Jumbo Properties for Sh1 billion.

The remaining acreage, according to the administrators, will be distributed equally to the beneficiaries once the court delivers its judgement.

Other family assets include the 640-acre Ihothia farm, Waihothia farm (198 acres), Thimbigwa/Waguthu (98 acres), Ikunu (13 acres), Githunguri (16 acres), three buildings in Nakuru Block 8/40, 8/41, 8/42, Koira Building in Mombasa, two plots in Karuri and Kiambaa in Kiambu.

KABOGO EMBROILED

Also awaiting distribution include shares in Kenyatu Ltd, Mboi-I-Kamiti, Gatatha Farmers Kiambaa Women Group, Kanunga Farmers Co-operative Society, a plot in Dagoretti and Lunga Lunga property in Nairobi’s Industrial Area.

There are also shares in BAT, Danson Macharia Saw Mills in Elbugon, 11,000 shares in Ocean View Beach Hotel and another 1,000 shares in Oceanic Hotel in Mombasa.

More than a dozen lawyers have been involved in the case representing the widows, children and other personalities purported to have bought various estate 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 another was said to have literally run away with a title deed of the vast Muthera Farm and could not be traced.

Court of Appeal judge Martha Koome, in a ruling she delivered in January 2005 as High Court judge, described the court “circus” in the Koinange case as the classical theatre of the absurd.

Kiambu Governor William Kabogo who featured prominently in the succession proceedings is embroiled in a dispute with the family over the purported purchase of two prime properties belonging to the estate.