Nakuru family's bitter feud over Sh50b estate

A scramble for property estimated at Sh50 billion threatens to tear apart a Nakuru family.

The death in April last year of business magnate Stephen Kung'u, who founded the famed Hotel Kunste in Nakuru town, has sparked a bitter legal tussle.

According to court documents filed at the High Court in Nakuru, Mr Kung'u died without leaving a succession plan for his estate.

His estate includes property and billions of shillings in at least seven different bank accounts including one at Barclays Bank, Westlands, with more than Sh1.5 billion.

The tycoon was the proprietor of popular entertainment spots including Kunste Hotel, Pivot Hotel and Club in Nakuru and Monte Carlo Club in Nairobi.

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Other properties include Luthuli House, Parklands Villa, Ambassador Court near Integrity Centre, three house blocks in Hurlingham and Ojijo Plaza in Nairobi, which fetches Sh2 million a month.

Kung'u also owned buildings in Parklands and Ngara in Nairobi and land in Kiambu, Nakuru and Nyahururu.

Three of his daughters have sued their step-mother, Grace Nyambura, alongside her four children alleging plans to lock them out of the empire.

 rightful inheritance

According to court documents, Naomi Wambui, Rahab Wamucii and Bilha Wanjiku, children of Kung'u's second wife, the late Joyce Wanjiru Kung'u, who died in 2009, allege sabotage of the businesses they were in charge of in an attempt to deny them their rightful inheritance.

According to court documents, Kung'u's widow Grace Nyambura and her sons Kansas Kagiri, David Ng'ang'a and Francis Ndegwa, and daughter Serah Wanjiku started interfering with her stepdaughters' running of Monte Carlo Club and eventually kicked them out of what was their "only source of livelihood".

They proceeded to change the name of the club to Terminal 2, and now Kansas Kagiri is collecting rent from the property "in cash" to avoid a paper trail.

The women are also worried as their stepmother, who is already running Mr Kung'u's other businesses and collecting rent, is planning to sell the club.