High Court revokes certificate of confirmation of grant issued to three family members and bars sale of the deceased’s property.
Former Kinangop MP Mary Wanjiru King’ori and her nine siblings are embroiled in a legal battle over the mode of distribution of their father’s estate estimated at more than Sh100 million.
The estate of the late King’ori Mbogo Ben alias King’ori Mbogo spread across Nyeri and Nyandarua counties includes huge tracks of land, industrial and residential plots.
Also being contested is an undisclosed amount of money in two bank accounts that was to be subdivided equally among the children.
Mbogo died on June 15, 2007 and left behind 10 beneficiaries listed as Wanjiru, Tabitha Kariuki, Moses Mbogo, Patson Ndiritu, Jane Murugi and Martin Ndung’u.
Others are Simon Matu, Anne Wakarima, Andrew Kimathi and Michael Ndirangu.
Wanjiru served as Kinangop MP (Ford Asili) from 1992-1997.
The dispute was aggravated after the High Court in Nyeri, on November 16, 2018 revoked a certificate of confirmation of grant issued to three family members.
“The grant issued to the petitioner on May 20, 2008 and confirmed on June 17 2011 is hereby removed,” Justice Teresa Matheka ruled.
The judge further directed Ndiritu and Kimathi (petitioners) and Matu (protester) to be at liberty to file summons for confirmation of grant taking into consideration all the concerns raised.
In his affidavit, Matu had sought that the grant of letters of administration intestate made to Ndiritu, Kimathi and Wanjiru on May 20, 2008 and confirmed on June 17, 2011 be revoked.
He claimed that the documents were obtained fraudulently and by concealment from court of material facts relevant to the case.
“There was no family agreement on the mode of distribution and I never attended any meeting to give my consent on the same,” Matu observed
He said other persons, rather than the intended beneficiaries, had been listed.
“Our late father’s movable property was sold irregularly even before the actual distribution,” the protestor added.
Matu cited a case where he was allegedly denied his share of the estate in Nyandarua/ South Kinagop /762 and 937, after disproportionate distribution.
Despite his signature appearing on the sale agreement of one of the property, Matu averred, that he could not remember anything else on the document nor received any proceeds from the sale.
Ndiritu, in his testimony, said the family met after their father’s death and agreed on the succession proceedings.
Offset costs
He claimed that they agreed to sell some parcels of land to offset costs and produced sale agreements. “The buyers were included in the list of beneficiaries so that they would get their shares,” he observed.
Ndiritu revealed some property that were not in his late father’s name were not included in the list
“Some properties were sold but the protester was not given a share,” he explained.
Justice Matheka ruled that none of the legal beneficiary had authority to sell the deceased’s property before grant was issued. “Any sale that took place was unlawful. Hence whether the applicant was a signatory to the sale of land or not, it was unlawful,” she added.
