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A property succession battle is looming over the estate of billionaire tea magnate, Stephen Mutai Imanyara, who was buried this January in Meru County.
Imanyara who died at the age of 78, was a founding member of the Co-operative Bank and long serving chair of the Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) with diversified investments, including 1,000 acres of tea.
He also had properties in, among other places, Nairobi, Mombasa, Isiolo, Ngong and Meru where he was chair of Imenti Tea Factory.
Imanyara was credited with, among others, transforming KTDA from a government institution to a successful private company.
The man from South Imenti and who acquired Nairobi’s Imenti House along Tom Mboya Street for a holding company, was one of Meru’s richest sons, besides being referred to as one of Africa’s largest individual tea farmers.
The succession case is pitting real estate developer, engineer Lee Kimathi Mutai, who is one of his sons, and Honesty Kanyua, the later billionaire’s other wife and her children. Kimathi accuses Honesty and her children of locking out his mother and himself from burial plans and share of inheritance.
In suit papers drawn on March 6, 2018, Kimathi asked Thuita Kiiru & Company Advocates to pursue legal redress if the family fails to make full disclosure of all properties and accounts held by Imanyara.
Kimathi and his mother were excluded from the obituary and burial plans, but attended without his mother who was in Europe and had not returned by the time of the burial at his Kathera home where governors Kiraitu Murungi (Meru), John Nyagarama (Kisii), Senate Deputy Speaker Kithure Kindiki and area MP Kathuri Murungi, were among the thousands of mourners.
The obituary announcing his death mentioned his wife Honesty Kanyua Mutai and children Kiogora Mutai, Dr (Rev) Bertha Kaimenyi, Eva Njukia, Norah Mutai and Ronald Mutuma.
Kimathi was educated in Kenya and at the Morehouse College in USA (where Martin Luther King Jr was an alumnus). But Kimathi and his mother were excluded despite him being present during burial preparations at his father’s Runda home in Nairobi and at the Royal Prince hotel in Meru.
According to his obituary authored by Kiogora and Bertha titled Stephen Mutai Imanyara -The Legacy of a Tea Industry Captain, he is honoured as “one of the biggest tea farmers in Africa.”
Besides heading KTDA after appointment by retired President Moi in 1991, he delivered 10 per cent of total tea leaves deliveries in Meru factories, earning him substantial cash in tea bonuses.
“Actually, the farms of the deceased under Majani Gardens Ltd and Giciaro Farm Ltd are over 1,000 acres. It is also a well-known fact that the deceased also owned 5,000 acres in Meru and had numerous houses and flats in Nairobi and other parts of the country,” reads the suit papers from Kimathi’s lawyers, and cites Sh300 million Imanyara banked as tea bonus as part of his wealth.
Imanyara was so business savvy, according to son Kiogora, a lawyer, that whenever they went to check a flat or two, but would spring a surprise, buying an entire block.
Among properties Kimathi lists as belonging to his father are two buildings (Makutho) in Meru and Makutano towns, the Kotnis Building which houses his Farmers Centre, and the building housing Sawa Sawa Uniforms, a family business in Meru town.
He also owned Centreline, a tea brokerage firm in Mombasa. As chair of Meru African Coffee Union (Maccu), Imanyara helped build the Maccu Building in Meru and the Meru Safari Hotel next to it.
Through Kathera Holding, they bought Imenti House in Nairobi, besides being associated with Yetu Sacco and Nexas Sacco.
