Kirima: Family remains with tough legal battle

By ALEX NDEGWA

He made billions in real estate, auctioneering and butchery businesses but died miserably as his family fought over his vast financial empire.

Mr Gerishon Kirima, purblind and incapacitated by diabetes and old age, exited the world before he could recover and straighten matters in his home.

Hours after he died, his third and living wife came to learn from the media, just like the rest of Kenyans. Why? She was ostracised by one arm of the family over claims she was squandering the old man’s hard-earned wealth and was pilfering part of his wealth for herself and her children, taking advantage of Kirima’s frailty, failing vision and dementia.

The curtain came down on the former Starehe MP on Wednesday at the age of 88, while undergoing treatment in South Africa.

Controversy stalks him in death, as he leaves behind a simmering battle over his empire and a series of court cases filed by family members fighting over his assets.

With his demise Nairobi has lost one of its grandest landlords, but the heirs of the vast fortune could be feeling they have inherited nothing but a nightmare.

That is because the financial empire Kirima built, estimated at hundreds of millions of shillings, is the subject of the protracted family feud.

Mrs Teresia Wairimu, Mr Kirima’s third wife, and her daughters are on one side of the bitter contest over control of property owned by the former Kanu stalwart. Her stepchildren are on the other side.

The two sides can’t agree on anything. They argued over the health condition of the city tycoon in the months preceding his demise.

Not even news of his death is without controversy — Teresia said she learnt of the death of her husband on Wednesday night through media reports. She added her stepchildren, who were with their father in South Africa, never bothered to inform her. "The children haven’t informed me. I learnt of it from the media. I am still waiting for their communication," a distraught Teresia told The Standard at their Kitisuru home.

Her daughter Rachael Ndei and five other relatives and friends were present.

She added: "Throughout his stay in hospital I got no briefing. I was denied visiting him in hospital here and abroad despite having a court order. It is only the other day I learnt Mzee had been moved from the United Kingdom to South Africa."

Wairimu said even her daughter, Alice Njeri, who lives in UK did not get access to her father. "The hospital in London where he was said to be admitted denied having a patient by that name," she said.

Mr Kirima was flown to the UK in August in controversial circumstances after brief admission to Nairobi Hospital. His children accused Teresia of neglecting their father, but she maintains he was not ailing. She charges they are only interested in their father’s wealth. Once Kirima spoke to the Press through a window in the upper floor of his Kitisuru home saying he was well.

Burial arrangements

According to Wairimu, Kirima was flown to South Africa from the UK a week ago. "Mzee deserves respect in death. It is unfortunate that his wealth, which took him great sacrifice to amass, has caused him so much anguish. The children should not only think about their father’s property," Teresia added.

She hopes Kirima’s friends, political associates, church and clan elders will intervene in the burial arrangements and times that follow. "I pray that God intervenes to heal this family," she reflected, her voice trailing away. Yesterday, the Kitisuru home, previously the scene of chaotic confrontations, was an atmosphere of calm and serenity, not betraying the lingering gloom.

Indeed, the vast fortune Kirima has built over the years seems to have planted seeds for all the family turmoil, with inheritors warring over the family fortune. A lot of dirty laundry washed in public by both parties and numerous court appearances have characterised the family feud, mirroring some Mexican soap operas.

Along the way, the attacks grew increasingly personal. A daughter of the city tycoon accused her stepmother of witchcraft. Thereafter, the stepchildren threw her out of the Kitisuru home and had her household items dumped at her rural home in Nyeri, as a sign of forced divorce.

She spent the night outside her home.

With this act Teresia’s falling out with her stepchildren reached the point of no return. With the legal battles she finds herself surrounded more by lawyers than loved ones.

In August the Kirima family drama intensified when some of his daughters including Bishop Jane Gathoni and Anne Wangari locked their stepmother in her Kitisuru home, blockading her efforts to get out of the compound.

Witchdoctor

The daughters had driven a long truck and parked outside the main gate to block her from driving out to visit her husband in hospital.

In September, the saga took a new twist following claims of witchcraft and betrayal. A daughter of the ailing former Assistant Minister listed 15 accusations against her stepmother, including that she was consulting a Tanzanian witchdoctor. She denied the accusations. A convoy of two minibuses and a lorry carrying household goods belonging to Teresia arrived at Mama Elizabeth Wanjiku Ndei’s home in Gitunduti Village in Nyeri.

Ms Wanjiku, 100, who is Teresia’s mother, said the men involved in the act risked a curse.

Yesterday, Kanu officials led by Vice Chairman Gideon Moi and Secretary General Nick Salat moaned Kirima’s death and praised him for the role he played in strengthening the party. Gideon said Kirima was a dedicated member of the party’s National Executive Committee and was its representative for Nairobi Province. "He was a dedicated party official who worked hard to develop and make the party very strong in Nairobi and other parts of the country," said Salat.

Kirima represented Starehe Constituency and also served as an Assistant Minister in the Kanu government.

Meanwhile, family members have been urged not to issue Press statements. Former Kamukunji MP Maina Wanjigi, who will chair a seven-member funeral committee, said he would give briefings daily.