[Source: Daily Nation, by Joseph Wangui]
Taking care of a parent in old age does not give one added advantage to inheritance, the High Court has ruled in a property row involving eight siblings.
Justice Florence Muchemi held that the Law of Succession Act mandates equal distribution of the estate of the deceased without discrimination, mostly where there is absence of a valid will.
She was ruling in a case where a woman wanted her husband to get a stake of her deceased father’s estate because he had taken care of him at old age.
Ms Jerusha Wambui claimed that her husband, Mr Moses Mbogo, took care of the deceased, Kubuta Kamara, by giving him a goat for soup.
Kamara died in 2001 at Mwea Hospital. The eight children had already shared out the estate of the deceased save for a plot in Wang’uru Mwea, which was the subject of the dispute.
When the succession proceedings began, the plot was left out of the list of the deceased’s assets.
Ms Wambui, who was the administrator of the estate, testified that she was advised to leave it out when commencing the probate proceedings by her advocate.
But Justice Muchemi found the move deliberate with an intention to later sneak it in so that the benefit may go to Ms Wambui and her husband in exclusion of all other beneficiaries.
Ms Wambui filed the matter seeking to have the disputed plot registered in Mr Mbogo’s name.
In her testimony, she said the deceased had bequeathed the plot to his son-in-law Mbogo as a gift prior to his death.
Ms Wambui claimed her husband paid the cost of subdivision of the deceased’s land, LR. Ngariama/Lower Ngariama/10, and was to be compensated with the plot.
The judge ruled that her explanation was not convincing, adding that all the debts, if any, ought to have been sorted out during the lifetime of the deceased.
Further, the respondents denied the existence of any agreement between the beneficiaries that the suit property devolves to Ms Wambui’s husband.
Justice Muchemi allowed inclusion of the property in the list of the deceased’s estate but blocked attempts to have it registered in the name of Ms Wambui’s husband.
Sections 35 of Law of Succession Act provides that where a person is survived by adult children but no spouse, the estate shall devolve upon them in equal shares.
[Full article: Daily Nation, by Joseph Wangui]
