How woman's 21-year fight for father's estate left her homeless

Margaret Njenga has battled her brothers and stepmothers since 2004. [Courtesy]

A woman’s 21-year fight for her father’s estate has rendered her a pauper from a successful businessperson.

Margaret Njenga started battling her brothers and stepmothers for a share in the estate of her father Peter Karanja, in 2004.

The estate, though not valued, comprises at least eight properties in Nakuru, Naivasha, Murang’a and Nairobi, land, and unknown amount of money in the bank to the tune of millions.

As her brothers, who are in control of the estate, continue to enjoy it not only as beneficiaries but also enjoy success of being pilots, Ms Njenga lives in a camp. For five years, she said she has been surviving on help from people who knew her, after she lost her home, job and her business went bankrupt.

“From January 14, 2026, I decided to live in a camp because I feel my friends have supported me so much and I have become a burden. I will live here until I get justice,” she said.

The tent she currently lives in after she lost her home. [Courtesy]

According to Njenga, the dispute with her brothers started after her mother Mary Mumbi died in 2004. She accused them of disinheriting her under the misuse of customary practices that are discriminatory to women.

She added that they fraudulently possessed the estate with the help of her uncle, a former chief in Nakuru. “My name was deliberately erased from official succession documents and I moved to court to fight for my right,” she said.

For the last 21 years, the burden of prosecuting the case has weighed on Njenga, as she was forced to pay legal fees but the case was delayed for two decades, emptying her savings and running down her businesses.

With the fear that she would end up in the streets, Njenga attempted an out of court settlement with her family but the same was unsuccessful.

She also engaged professional mediators, elders, among others but she has not been successful to date. “It took me to realise that the succession case was going nowhere and I was wasting a lot of money, paying legal fees but I was not getting help,” she said.

Njenga tried alternative means, including writing to human rights groups to push for her case. She said she has lost an estimated Sh19 million rental income from the family estate, due to alleged illegal and forceful possession from family members.

Despite the challenges, Njenga had a job and started a business which was thriving until Covid-19 hit. The business not only collapsed, but she was bankrupt and auctioneers locked some of her household goods in a warehouse where she owes over Sh500,000 in storage fees.

She has been homeless since November 2025. “I was forced to liquidate majority of my assets to pay legal fees and for survival because I did not want to stop the fight for what is rightfully mine,” she lamented.

She was also arrested and locked in a police cell for four nights. She recorded a tearful video from her cell. It went viral and former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko came to her aid and obtained her release.

She said she has been receiving calls from strangers threatening her, which she reported to the police. This Standard reporter also received strange calls from unknown numbers on the same day he interviewed her. “I live in a tent in an undisclosed location, to hide from people who are after me,” she said.

To seek justice, Njenga initiated a public online petition to fight for her rights and the rights of other women in the same predicament.