A court has allowed a former Central Bank of Kenya director to claim 1,000 acres from the vast estate of Kenya’s first post-independence Major General.
Following Maj Gen Joseph Ndolo’s death in a car crash in 1984, his three widows, Alice Katiwa, Rose Mutinda and Elizabeth Kamene were locked in a fight to keep his 9,000-acre Mwani Ranch in Sultan Hamud.
Among the issues they started fighting in the 1985 succession case was the sale of 1,000 acres of the vast estate to Joseph Maitha, a former CBK director.
Prof Maitha had acquired the land from Mrs Kamene despite opposition by the other members of the patriarch’s polygamous family. This ended up in the succession case, where the other houses wanted Kamene’s right to administration taken away and the sale revoked.
They based their argument on an alleged forgery of Ndolo’s will. On average, the cost of an acre of land is approximately Sh 450,000 locally. Going by the estimate, if the former military boss was alive today, he would have been worth Sh 4.5 billion in terms of land alone.
On appeal, in 1996, Kamene ended up with a bigger chunk of Ndolo’s estate while Mutinda and Katiwa shared a portion of estate.
Out of the court’s order for division, Kamene got 3,200 acres while her co-wives shared 2,400 acres.
Justices Evans Gicheru, Phillip Tunoi and Riaga Omollo observed that the 1,000 acres which would again draw a long fight in the corridors of justice was unavailable for sharing, having been sold.
Although the court found that Maitha had a claim, he did not get his piece of land. Maitha came into the picture in a purchase that was meant to salvage the entire estate from an auction by the Agricultural Finance Corporation. Court records read that the entire Ndolo’s estate had been used as security for a loan from AFC, which had not been serviced.
The court also heard that Kamene had no powers to sell the contested property before it was distributed to beneficiaries. But Justices Roslyne Nambuye, Mohamed Warsame and Kathurima M’inoti observed that the court left out the 1,000 acres from distribution.
They ruled that his case was justified. According to the judges, although the estate was distributed through a succession case, Maitha’s interests in the estate were not taken care of.
Ndolo’s family is also facing a separate fight over 800 acres with Josiah Kiambulu.
[Article source: The Standard, by John Muthoni]
