Naivas founder's Will revealed as inheritance battle rages on

The Naivas Super Center near State House in Nakuru on May 18, 2012. The Naivas founder's Will was on February 11, 2016 revealed in court as the succession battle pitting siblings against each other rages on. PHOTO | SULEIMAN MBATIAH | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Mr Gachwe told Justice Anthony Ndung’u in Nakuru on Wednesday that their father, Mr Peter Mukuha Kago, left a Will clearly indicating how the property would be shared.

  • Mr Gachwe said it was against the Will for his brother, Mr Kagira, to demand part of his father’s 10,000 shares in the supermarket chain.

  • Mr Kagira has insisted he contributed more than 20 per cent of the seed capital for the company.

The founder of Naivas Supermarkets left a Will indicating how the property he left behind was to be shared, a court heard Thursday.

This was said by Naivas chairman Simon Gachwe Mukuha as he urged the High Court to dismiss a suit in which his brother, Newton Kagira Mukuha, is demanding part of the shares their father owned in the business.

Mr Gachwe told Justice Anthony Ndung’u in Nakuru on Wednesday that their father, Mr Peter Mukuha Kago, left a Will clearly indicating how the property would be shared.

“My father’s property should be distributed in accordance with the Will. Even my elder brother, Mr Kagira, got his share of the property distributed among my nine siblings,” Mr Gachwe said, adding he did not intend to disinherit anybody.

He said it was against the Will for his brother to demand part of his father’s 10,000 shares in the supermarket chain.

The suit also seeks to determine the executor of the Will.

THE WILL

According to Mr Gachwe, their father had 10,000 ordinary shares (20 per cent) of Naivas which were to be shared between himself and his three other siblings, excluding Mr Kagiri.

Mr Gachwe and another brother, Mr David Kimani Mukuha, were each allocated four per cent of the shares and his sisters, Ms Grace Wambui and Ms Linet Wairimu, got six per cent each.

Mr Gachwe said Mr Kagira, who is claiming 20 per cent of the business “squandered multiple opportunities” to own shares in the business when he mismanaged Rongai Self Service Store.

He said Mr Kagira was arrested in the early 90s for alleged mismanagement and embezzlement of Sh230,000.

“Out of a desire to help our brother, we withdrew the case in Nakuru on the advice of our father and lent him goods worth Sh46 million at Nairobi’s Greenmart Supermarket. He paid Sh38 million but stopped, claiming he had been disinherited in Naivas,” said Mr Gachwe.

Mr Kagira has insisted he contributed more than 20 per cent of the seed capital for the company. Further hearing was set for March 15.