Mombasa tycoon’s daughters to get share of his estate

Justice Thande, in her ruling, asked the family members to reconcile and stop fighting over the wealth their father who died in 2004, without writing a will. [Courtesy]

The High Court has ordered that two daughters locked out of their father’s Sh15 billion estate get equal share with their three brothers.

On Friday, Justice Migure Thande ordered that Jaspal Kaur Nagi and Sukwant Kaur Dhanjal Kundi had a right to get a share of tycoon Jaswant Singh Boor’s estates in Kenya and the UK despite them being married.

Sukwant and Jaspal had complained that their brothers had locked them out in sharing the estate of their father because they were married. The judge ordered their brother Daljit Singh to surrender all documents, including title deeds and bank accounts, to the court today.

In July last year, the judge appointed Sukwant and her brother Joginder Singh Dhanjal as joint administrators.

The judge appointed the two as the administrators of their father’s estate after Joginder and Sukwant successfully sued Daljit, accusing him of locking out other family members.

They accused Daljit of plundering their father’s estate with his in-laws.

Justice Thande, in her ruling, asked the family members to reconcile and stop fighting over the wealth their father who died in 2004, without writing a will.

Before the ruling, Sukwant, who lives in UK, had accused his brother Daljit Singh of taking over administration of the estate of their father without involving them.

She claimed in an affidavit that Daljit, in cohort with his uncles, illegally appointed himself as the sole administrator of their father’s estate.

The judge gave this order after she found that Daljit was wrongly appointed as the sole administrator, as that was against succession laws, which dictate that every child has a right to equal share of their father’s wealth.

Fanning division

Justice Thande advised the family members against fanning division among themselves as that could tear them apart.

The deceased tycoon’s wealth includes buildings, businesses and money in bank accounts in Kenya and UK.

The shares each sibling is supposed to get are in Dhanjal Brothers Company, Express Holding Ltd, Whitehard Holdings Mary Field in UK and Dhanjal Investment Company.

Justice Thande also ordered that the disputed property remain under the court’s jurisdiction until the succession dispute is determined.

“All property under dispute must be surrendered to the court for determination by the court after the hearing,” said Thande.

The judge made the order after Joginder and Sukwant claimed Daljit had transferred some of the shares to himself.

The siblings who have been fighting over the estate for the last 15 years are all expected in court today to confirm if Daljit has surrendered all property documents in court as per the judge’s order.