An Shs 55 Billion is at the center of inheritance disputes in Nakuru by relatives of the well-known multi-millionaires who left behind prosperous business empires. The Billions of the family are now stuck in court battles.
The millionaires in the disputes include Naivasha tycoon Fai Amario, Nakuru politicians Dickson Kihika Kimani and Philip Kamau, Eliakim Washington Olweny, a wealthy owner of two top private hospitals in Nakuru City who died on October 10, 2016, and the businessman Stephen Kagiri Kung’u.
The tycoons worked hard for their fortune and some of them came from impoverished backgrounds. Vast sums of money and valuable property are at stake in these legal disputes, and some of the cases have gone on for more than a decade.
The fact that many of the men passed away without leaving a will, according to Nakuru-based attorney Steve Biko Osur, is the reason for the disputes.
According to Mr. Biko, the majority of the business tycoons whose families are fighting in court either didn’t leave wills or had a murky succession plan, which forced their families to fight over assets. Others are a result of second and third spouses trying to get their fair share of the inheritance.
The family disputes involving Naivasha businessman Fai Amario have been one of the longest-running conflicts. Twelve years ago, the tycoon passed away in Nairobi while undergoing treatment. His children are squabbling over their father’s Sh760 million estate in court.
According to a valuation estimate by the Ministry of Lands and Physical Planning, Amario, the founder of Kenya’s first microbrewery, left behind a fortune that is currently worth more than Sh76 million. In May 2010, Amario, a former student of the Starehe Boys Center, passed away intestate, leaving behind the riches at the center of a contentious succession dispute involving his eight children and two wives.
Amario spent Sh17 million to build Fai Amario Wineries Ltd in Naivasha. He was distilling highly well-liked budget brands. He made investments in Kiambu, Naivasha, Kyei in Embu County, and other places, as well as in land and structures.
Amario was the owner of 103 land lots totaling more than 130 acres. Of those lands, 89 are worth Sh750.6 million. The value of the additional 14 lots totaling more than 13 acres is unknown.
The 5.6 acres in Mwichiringi where the Naivasha factory is located are worth Sh78 million. The entire value of his holdings was Sh94.75 million and included the Sh13.5 million Den Hotel on a 6.5-acre plot in Naivasha.
Amario’s daughter has petitioned the Nakuru High court in the most recent development, attempting to prevent her siblings from handling their father’s assets.
When Stephen Kung’u, another prosperous Nakuru businessman who built his empire in the 1980s and 1990s, passed away in 2015, his estate was estimated to be worth more than Sh 50 billion.
It included the renowned Hotel Kunste, which is close to the Nakuru State House, as well as the Pivot Hotel in the Shabab neighborhood of Nakuru.
A few months after his passing, his widow, three daughters, and son split out, each claiming to have been given the authority to manage the late businessman’s money, which included vast amounts of the premium estate.
In Nairobi, Kung’u owned Luthuli House, Ambassador Court near integrity Centre, Grace House, Ojijo Plaza, three-story buildings in Hurlingham, Shalom Prayer Centre, Parkland Villa, and the Monte Carlo hotel. He also owned shares in Kuka Investment Ltd. Additionally, Kung’u had property in Nakuru, Kiambu, Nyahururu, and Gigil.
At the time of his passing, he had more than Sh1.5 billion in his Barclays Bank account at the Westlands Branch. His three daughters claimed in 2015 that their stepmother had interfered with their ability to inherit their father’s riches. In September 2015, September, the daughters went to the High Court in Nakuru and tried to stop their stepmother from kicking them out of a Hurlingham apartment that belonged to the family.
Soon after the burial, the widow, and her son went to court and won the right to manage the estate. In Nairobi, the daughters filed a second lawsuit to have the two prevented from becoming administrators.
A property dispute has also broken out in the family of seasoned politician Dickson Kihika Kimani, a former Nakuru North MP and the father of Nakuru Governor Susan Kihika.
The administration of Sh600 million estates is the source of contention between the family members. In a bitter succession dispute, three of the firebrand lawmaker’s four offspring have filed lawsuits against their four mothers.
Administrators of the estate Ms. Florence Nduta, Mr. Anthony Kihika, and Ms. Judy Muthoni wished to take the position of their mothers, Margaret Wambui, Alice Mukuhi, Mary Wangari, and Miriam Warau.
In the 2018 lawsuit, the three claimed that their mothers are elderly and are unable to maintain the property. The Shs 200 million inheritance of Nakuru businessman Washington Olweny’s widow is also a source of dispute.
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Olweny passed away in December 2016, and a few days later, his three wives filed a lawsuit to determine who would receive his assets. Olwenly held land in Nakuru, Kisumu, and Nairobi in addition to the Evans Sunrise Hospital in Nakuru town.
Norah Olweny and Anna Wanjiru, Olweny’s second and third wives, asserted that they were married to him following Luo customs.
They were granted orders preventing Phelesiah Olweny’s first wife and her sons Edwin and Timothy Olweny from removing the remains from Nairobi’s Lee Funeral Home until their application was heard and decided.
The succession dispute has been going on since 2017, even after the businessman was secretly buried at his remote home in Ukwala, Siaya County, with his son Allan Onyango attempting to exclude his two step-mothers from the family estate.
Mr. Onyango asserted in court last year that Ms. Atieno and Ms. Wanjiru were not his father’s wives. The mother of Mr. Onyago, Ms. Akoth, filed the succession lawsuit,t and the two were the objectors.
Ms. Atieno and Ms. Wanjiru allegedly misled the court to get the property to which they aren’t legally entitled, according to Mr. Onyago, an interested person who was enjoined in the case.
