Karume's children lose restaurant facelift case

The late Njenga Karume’s children from left Albert Kigera, Samuel Wanjema and Lucy Wanjiru at a past event. The trio wants the trustees managing their father’s estate to exit. [Photo: File]

The late Njenga Karume's three children have lost the war on Pizza Garden's renovation after the court lifted its earlier orders that had barred the trust from tampering with the property.

High Court Judge Alfred Mabeya in his orders read by Justice Mbogholi Msagha Thursday said the self-made billionaire's children Albert Kigera, Samuel Wanjema and Lucy Wanjiru had failed to tell the court that they had sought similar orders against the trustees but they were denied.

However, the judge gave them a temporary 14-day window to allow them to appeal by ordering that the status quo remain. This means the property would remain untouched but it can be repaired after the 14 days.

The judge also ordered the three to bear the costs of the trustee's suit. He also ordered that the estate should remain intact until the end of the case.

The order read: "The ruling will be affecting those beneficiaries and interested parties who are benefiting from it yet they were not involved in the subject wrongs committed by the plaintiffs. If the order is fully discharged, the innocent beneficiaries might find it difficult to make any other application from similar orders."

Karume's children had moved to the civil court and at the same time the family court seeking to block the trustees from managing his vast estate.

Run affairs

In the application, they had asked the courts to bar the trustees from renovating Jacaranda Hotel and Pizza Garden, but the order was disregarded by the family court and at the same time granted by the civil one.

"The plaintiffs shall bear the cost of the second defendant's (trustees) application and those of the third, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth interested parties," the court ruled.

The trio wants the trustees appointed by their late father to exit the vast estate allowing for another "professional group" that they will appoint to run the affairs of the multi-billion shilling assets.

The children are contesting management by George Waireri, Henry Karume, Kung'u Gatabaki and Margaret Kamithi and they want them to exit the former minister's estate. They have said some of the trustees were not appointed by their late father before he died.

The trustees, however, claim that they have managed the vast estate well and that the case is only meant to tarnish their names.