Father, son-in-law fight over Sh100 million property

An intricate Sh100 million property tussle is shaping up in Nairobi's Kahawa Sukari estate pitting a father and his deceased daughter's partner. The properties at the stake are three motor vehicles, parcels of land in Mathira, Nairobi, and Ruiru, several bank accounts, and shares in various companies.

John Gathungu Njuguna, a former Engineer with Kenya Broadcasting Corporation (KBC), is currently living in the United States and is fighting to secure the properties that were initially registered under his deceased wife, Florence Ng'endo Kiumi.

According to Njuguna, he and his wife had relocated to Massachusetts, US for decades before their daughter joined them in 2010.

Njuguna is currently in the medical field while his daughter, Ann Wamuyu Gathungu trained as a nurse after she joined her father, upon completion of her tourism and hospitality degree course at Pwani University in 2010.

"My wife and I continued to invest back home and we accumulated the property together but in 2019, my wife was diagnosed with cancer and she relocated to Kenya to rest and heal," he said.

It was during her stay in Kenya that Wamuyu and Dennis Gachie Githui decided to travel to care for her ailing mother. Njuguna believes that after his wife died, in the same year Wamuyu transferred her parent's property to herself locking him out in the administration process.

"When my wife died my daughter acquired a letter of administration for the estate that had been registered in her mother's name without my knowledge nor approval," he said.

The letter of administration was confirmed on February 25, 2022, by Ruiru Principal Magistrate Court Ms J. A. Agonda following her application.

In July 2022, Wamuyu, who was still in Kenya, traveled to Gachie's home in Ihwagi village in Mathira, Nyeri County, where she died.

Speaking to The Nairobian, Njuguna said that Wamuyu's death, the family called him from their home but the details he provided regarding her death were not convincing.

Heart attack

According to a post-mortem examination report, Wamuyu, 32, died as a result of a heart attack.

However, Njuguna is not convinced by the report and has written to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) asking them to investigate the death insisting he suspects foul play in her death. After her death, Gachie, who cohabited with Wamuyu between 2019 and July 8, 2022, then kicked off the process to have the grant of administration of the estate changed into his name.

"What irks me is that Wamuyu a mother of two died on July 7, last year, and Gachie insisted on burying her in Ihwagi village, a move that I objected vehemently," said Njuguna.

But Wamuyu was buried in her parents' home in Kanyama village in the Kirimukuyu area in the Mathira constituency before the change of administration of the estate kicked off.

"The controversy surrounding the property emerged when Gachie alerted me of his wish to build his home on my land, a move that led to investigations and discovered my daughter had accessed the right of the administration to the property listed in my wife's name," he said.

Gachie then filed an affidavit in support of the summons for confirmation of the grant of administration intestate swearing that "the deceased did not have any other dependents".

On his part, Gachie said he is the father of two minors they sired with the late Wamuyu who was the administrator of the properties that belonged to her mother.

Gachie insisted that he lived with the deceased persons in the same compound in the US for two years as she was being treated.

He has applied to be the administrator of the estate over which Wamuyu was granted a letter of administration by the Ruiru law court last year.

"Our two daughters are the sole beneficiaries of the estate under Ann Wamuyu Gathungu, which fell upon her on the demise of Florence Ng'endo Kiumi. The objection by Mr Njuguna is based on falsehood," said Gachie in an affidavit.

Wangari Magua, who knows the family, disclosed that the late Wamuyu had been forced by Gachie to visit his mother Ms Muthoni's ancestral place in Ihwagi against her wish.

Ms Magua said she was pronounced dead on arrival at Jamii Hospital in Karatina town.

"She arrived on July 7, 2022, and fell sick between 10 am and 4 pm," she said.

Mzee James Mugambi says the incident that befell Wamuyu was a result of a come-we-stay marriage, which has landed many of the families in danger.

"The young man must prove his relationship with Wamuyu and should produce a marriage certificate and provide details if engaged in the customary marriage," said Mugambi, a member of the Kikuyu Council of Elders.