JM Kariuki's widows still fighting for wealth

When Josiah Mwangi Kariuki quipped that “Kenya is a country of 10 millionaires and 10 million beggars”, he probably forgot to mention that he too was a member of the millionaires club.

Ten years after he was shot dead and his body dumped at Lochubo Manyatta in Kajiado County, all hell broke loose in his family as his three wives – Doris Nyambura, Esther Mwikali and Terry Wanjiku – extended their battle for control of the former Nyandarua North MP’s assets to court.

Typical of most Kenyans, JM, as he was popularly known, had not written a will. This only complicated matters for his family. His children are now past the middle age mark, yet the dispute over his assets is yet to be resolved.

The case filed by JM’s first wife, Terry, has also grown tentacles as various applications by the parties have stalled determination of the main suit.

To put things into context, when the case was filed, retired Justice Kalpana Rawal was 10 years into legal practice. She went on to serve another 15 years as a lawyer before being appointed a High Court judge.

Justice Rawal served for 12 years before being appointed a judge of the Supreme Court and Deputy Chief Justice. She is now three years into retirement, but JM’s family fights on in the corridors of justice.

SH4 BILLION

JM’s estate is huge. The land he owned in Nairobi, Ol Kalou and Gilgil is worth more than Sh4 billion at current market rates.

He also had shares in East African Breweries , CMC Holdings, Motor Mart Group, ICDC, Pan African Insurance, Standard Chartered, Kedong Ranch, Kulia Investments, Unga Group, Lonrho Motors East Africa, Car & General, BAT, Laikipia Distributors and Rift Valley Agencies.

In May, the Unclaimed Financial Assets Authority took over an undisclosed number of shares that JM held in cigarette manufacturer BAT. Two years ago, the same government agency took over the 522 shares that JM held in Unga Group.

This means that JM’s family has never transferred ownership of the shares the patriarch held in Unga Group and BAT.

While JM’s estate is not in the strictest sense of the word wasted, his family have passed a chance to expand it and build on the platform the former politician gave them.

Before the court battle started, the family had agreed to sell the 811 acre Gilgil farm to a group of farmers identified as Twendane Farmers Company and a Sh360,000 deposit was paid.

The group was unable to pay the Sh640,000 balance but had already taken possession of the land. In 1983, JM’s family obtained court orders stopping Twendane’s members from occupying the land.

Somehow, the matter went silent until 2011 when members of the same group went to court claiming that they have been in occupation of the land for more than 12 years hence should be declared its legal owners.

In Kenyan law, under the principle of adverse possession, one can be declared the legal owner of a piece of land if they occupy it for 12 years or more without objection from anyone else.

Luckily for the JM family, the court orders against Twendane had never been lifted, hence Justice L.N. Waithaka ruled in their favour.

When Justice Rawal presided over the case in 2009, it appeared the matter had come to rest as the family had agreed on a sharing formula for the vast estate.

JM’s first wife, Terry, appeared to be the biggest winner as she was to get the land that hosted Seoul Restaurant off Ngong road, 250 acres of the famous Riverside Farm in Ol Kalou and another 180.5 acres of land in their matrimonial home in Gilgil.

Castle Inn, a hotel in the city’s Garden Estate, was to be divided and equally shared between Terry and her co-wife, Ms Esther, JM’s second wife.

It is this call that has seen the third wife, Doris Nyambura, return to court challenging the consents and division, and which now holds the fate of any agreement between the three households in its hands.

Esther also got 250 acres in Riverside Farm, while Doris got 118 acres.

I hope I have given a substantive justice to all

Terry and Esther also got 35 per cent each of the 811-acre farm in Gilgil while Doris was given the remaining 30 per cent.

As for the matrimonial land, Esther got 170.5 acres while Doris got 50 acres.

Each of the wives was also given an equal share of an additional 10 acres of the matrimonial land, or proceeds from its sale.

Shares in companies Terry bought and money he had in bank accounts was also to be shared equally between the households.

“I hope that I have given substantive justice to all under the circumstances of this case which dates back to at least 1985, if not 1975,” Justice Rawal said as she delivered her ruling on December 8, 2009.

The family was, however, dissatisfied and is back in court.

In 2017, Doris claimed that her matrimonial home stands on the Garden Estate properties and that her co-wives squeezed her out of the land before leasing it to third parties who now use it to operate the Castle Inn.

In one of the applications that has stalled the final resolution of the dispute, Doris asked the court to jail her co-wives and Castle Inn’s operators, Mr Maina wa Ihuthia and Mr Riara Kanyuira, for breaching a court order, which called for maintaining a status quo on the land.

'DESTROYED BUILDINGS'

She added that Castle Inn and her co-wives had destroyed buildings on the prime property. But her co-wives held that only renovations were done on buildings on the land.

Doris insisted that as a co-wife, her consent was required before leasing the Garden Estate property to third parties.

Justice Abida Ali-Aroni dismissed the contempt applications in March and ordered that applications on sharing of the property that were filed in 2009 be heard.

The matter is still awaiting determination.

Separately in 2005, JM’s children sued the government for redress in their father’s murder. They argue that the government was involved and covered up the assassination.

JM’s body was found in a thicket in Ngong Hills on March 2, 1975, after an earlier government statement indicated that the politician was in Zambia on official duty.

His children have now faulted the government for failing to protect JM’s land, arguing that some of it has been invaded by squatters and is inaccessible to the family.

The case is still in the High Court.