Saitoti's estate faces fresh storm over son's claim, DNA test bid and exhumation request

Fresh Saitoti estate row as man seeks DNA test and inheritance. [File, Standard]

Fourteen years after the death of former Vice-President and Internal Security minister Prof George Saitoti, a man claiming to be the long-hidden biological son has moved to the Nairobi High Court demanding a slice of his vast estate.

James Njage wants the court to revoke the confirmed grant that vested Saitoti's estate in his widow, Margaret Wanjiku Saitoti, and their son, Zachary Musengi Saitoti, and order a full accounting of the estate's administration.

The application also seeks an extraordinary request that could see the former Vice-President's remains exhumed for DNA testing to establish paternity and half the fortune. Njage, who claims to be Saitoti's son but did not disclose the identity of his mother, argues that he was a child living outside the country when the estate was confirmed and distributed and that nobody bothered to tell the court he existed. In an application filed under a certificate of urgency through Murage Juma & Company Advocates before Milimani Law Courts, Njage has sued Saitoti's widow, Wanjiku, in what is shaping up to be another major legal battle over the late former Vice-President's estate, 14 years after the celebrated mathematician, politician and statesman died in a police helicopter crash on June 10, 2012.

Although the High Court Judge Roseline Oganyo recently declined to certify the matter as urgent, she directed that the application be served upon the estate administrators ahead of an inter-partes hearing scheduled for September 24, 2026.

"That the notice of motion dated June 15, 2026, is not certified urgent. The same shall be served to be heard inter-parties on September 24, 2026," Justice Oganyo ruled.

The ruling now sets the stage for what could reopen succession proceedings concluded years ago if the court finds that a legitimate beneficiary was left out during the administration of the estate.

In a detailed affidavit, Njage insists he is Saitoti's biological son and was unlawfully excluded from succession proceedings because he was still a minor and living outside Kenya when the grant of representation was confirmed.

Njage insists he only recently learned of a Rectified Certificate of Confirmation of Grant dated November 11, 2019, entered in Succession Cause 2525 of 2012, one that, he says, makes no mention of him whatsoever.

"I have never been involved in any proceedings concerning the administration of my father's estate, nor have I received any information, accounts or assets from his estate since his demise," he swears in the affidavit sworn before Commissioner for Oaths Gabriel K. Gathumbi.

He argues that he was never informed that succession proceedings had been initiated, was never served with court papers and had no guardian appointed to protect his interests.

According to Njage, the administrators concealed a material fact by failing to disclose his existence when seeking confirmation of the grant, leading to the exclusion of a beneficiary who, if his claims are upheld, would be entitled to inherit part of the estate.

"It is clear that the proceedings were commenced without disclosing that I am the son of the Deceased and beneficiary to his Estate," he states, alleging the grant was obtained through material non-disclosure, concealment of material facts and misrepresentation as to the beneficiaries of the estate. His lawyers argue the timing was not his fault.

"At the time the Grant was issued, confirmed and rectified, I was a minor and therefore lacked the legal capacity, means, knowledge and opportunity to object to or participate in the succession proceedings," the court papers state, adding that he was also outside the jurisdiction of the Court.

He is asking the court to revoke the confirmed grant, halt any further implementation of the estate distribution and compel the administrators to provide a comprehensive account of all assets, rental income, investments, bank withdrawals, transfers, expenditures and liabilities from the time the grant was confirmed.

Njage contends that without court intervention, the estate could be fully distributed before his claim is determined, effectively locking him out of inheritance. Perhaps the most dramatic aspect of the application is his intention to seek orders allowing the exhumation of Saitoti's remains for DNA analysis.

He wants the Government Pathologist and two private pathologists, one picked by him, one by the widow, to jointly extract DNA samples under the court's supervision, with results filed within 21 days and analysed separately by KEMRI and two other laboratories.

"The prayer for exhumation is necessary, proportionate and in the interests of justice, as it goes to the root of the objector/applicant's status, standing and entitlement in the estate," his advocates argue in the certificate of urgency, adding that Njage is willing to submit myself for DNA sampling as the Court may direct.

Should the results confirm his paternity, Njage is asking the court to declare that he is entitled to a half share of Saitoti's net estate once the widow's life interest lapses, effectively demanding to be treated as an equal beneficiary alongside her. This is not the first-time paternity has shadowed Saitoti's family fortune.

The estate, valued at over Sh84.5 million when it was first confirmed in 2013 and comprising land, houses in Muthaiga, Lavington, Nyali and Karen, motor vehicles, shares and bank accounts, was ordered by Justice William Musyoka of the then High Court's Family Division to be split equally between the widow and her son Musengi, in line with Saitoti's will.

Musengi later became the subject of a long-running court dispute after a couple from Subukia claimed he was their biological son and sought DNA testing. However, the Saitoti family consistently maintained that he was their son, and the matter became the subject of several court proceedings.

Court of Appeal judges Philip Waki, Patrick Kiage and Roselyn Nambuye ruled in June 2017 that Zachary was not the biological son of Sebastian Ngunju, a teacher who claimed the boy had been abducted from his Subukia home decades earlier, and that Ngunju's case had already been withdrawn by mutual agreement.

Ngunju nonetheless returned to court in 2019 seeking a fresh DNA test to settle the matter permanently. Now, Njage's fresh case revives that unresolved unease over who truly belongs to the Saitoti bloodline, only this time, it is the widow's own position, and not just her son's, that could be upended.

For now, the court has ordered that Njage must formally serve the widow Wanjiku and the estate's administrators ahead of the September 24 hearing, where the court will decide whether to grant him leave to object to the 2019 rectified grant out of time, and, ultimately, whether Saitoti's remains will be disturbed in the search for the truth. Saitoti died on June 10, 2012, when a police helicopter crashed in the Kibiko area of Ngong Forest en route to a fundraiser in Ndhiwa, Homa Bay County, killing him alongside his assistant minister Orwa Ojode, two pilots and two bodyguards.

A commission chaired by former Court of Appeal judge Kalpana Rawal blamed a mix of pilot error, poor weather and a faulty helicopter battery for the crash. Investigators also established that communication between the aircraft and Wilson. The airport's control tower was lost only minutes after take-off.