Court orders bank to provide account statements of missing Belgian widow

Missing Belgian widow Dysseleer Mireille. [File, Standard].

The High Court has ordered the manager of Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) to provide bank statements of missing Belgian widow Dysseleer Mireille.

Justice Patricia Gichohi ordered the manager to file the statements from October 2019 to date before the court, by December 3, 2025.

"The manager KCB is directed to file all the bank statements from the date the succession case was filed on October10, 2019 to date," ruled Gichohi.

Court records showed that Mireille, whose estate is estimated to be worth more than Sh100 million, had three bank accounts at the KCB Maralal branch.

The widow, presumed dead, went missing on October 6, 2018, after her last Facebook post and her body has never been found to date, and detectives believe she was murdered.

Justice Gichohi issued the orders on Monday, following an application by former executor of Mireille's will, lawyer Hari Gakinya.

In his application dated March 23, Gakinya claimed that someone has been tampering with Mireille's bank accounts, with or without the authority of the administrator of the estate.

"It is only fair that the manager of KCB Bank provides us and this court with all the bank statements from the date the case was filed, October 2019, to the end of March 2025," submitted Gakinya.

He argued that the statements would show if the estate is intact and may also stop any alleged attempted cleanup of Mireille's money in the accounts.

Gakinya, the Public Trustee, who was appointed the administrator of the estate, had not provided the court and the beneficiaries with any accounts of Mireille.

He argued that the same may not be possible, because someone is interfering with the said accounts without authority.

"The beneficiaries are concerned because they do not know the actual value of the estate. They need to know the value of the estate as at this stage," he told the court.

Gakinya who had been the executor of the estate until April 21, 2022 said he was worried that some of the beneficiaries, who are school-going children, were in dire need of financial assistance.

The public trustee did not object to the application saying that this would enable its office to realise the value of the estate.

The ruling follows the suspension of the succession case, until Mireille's murder case, facing Gakinya is concluded.

The lawyer is charged with Mireille's murder alongside Lucy Waithera, one of the estate's listed beneficiaries.

Gakinya filed the case seeking orders to distribute the estate to seven listed beneficiaries.

The seven are Waithera, two students, John Lemarat, Ntalie Lenolkiok, Joseph Wanjohi (Mireille's driver), and Daniel Moen.

He filed Mireille's will, dated November 15, 2018 and claimed that she died on July 15, 2019, at MP Shah Hospital.

However, the Attorney General (AG) opposed the application and accused Gakinya of allegedly forging Mireille's will, her death certificate and other documents.

Then, trial Judge Teresia Matheka appointed the public trustee administrator of the estate on April 21, 2022, until the murder case is concluded.

Mireille's assets include a townhouse, a shopping complex worth Sh19 million, a luxury car, a lorry, properties in Belgium, and accounts in Kenyan banks and the International Luxembourg Suisse bank.

The case will be mentioned on December 3.