A land dispute involving six siblings has been settled.
Four sisters will now get a share of 6,000 hectares of land in Nyeri after the High Court dismissed an attempt by their brother and sister to bar them from inheriting their father's property.
Joseph Ndiritu Gitonga and his elder sister Dorcas Wanjiru had moved to court seeking to bar their married sisters from inheriting equal shares of their father's property.
Nyeri tycoon Simon Gitonga Gathirwa died on March 16, 2009 at the age of 88, leaving behind six children Ms Wanjiru, Angelica Wairimu, Charity Kagure, Naomi Wangechi, Catherine Wakarima and Mr Gitonga.
In his judgement Justice John Mativo said the Constitution specifically provides that women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres.
Mativo directed Gathirwa's 6,000 hectares of land in Nyeri and 5,000 shares at Kenya Airways be shared equally among his six children.
They are also to share equally 278 Shares in Tetu Housing Co-operative Society Limited. Gitonga and Wanjiru had insisted that their four married sisters had agreed to their proposal, but started disputing the mode of distribution after one of their uncles died.
Mr Gathirwa's children had urged the court to determine whether the businessman had made an oral will as alleged, or whether he distributed his property when he was alive. Gitonga and Wanjiru claimed that their father had called two of their brothers and given oral instructions on how his property should be distributed upon his demise.
"I am not persuaded that the evidence tendered proved on a balance of probabilities even in the slightest manner that (Gathirwa) made an oral will and if at all he did, whether it was made freely. It was upon the protesters to adduce cogent evidence to prove this point to the required standard," the judge ruled.
Mativo said excluding girls from inheriting their parents' estate amounts to discrimination. The Constitution prohibits discrimination of any person on the basis of race, sex, marital status or culture.
Gitonga had argued his sisters were married and owned property in their respective matrimonial homes, and therefore were not entitled to inherit their father's property.
"The Law of Succession does not discriminate between female and male children or married and unmarried daughters of a deceased person when it comes to distribution of his estate. All children are entitled to stake a claim to the estate, in seeking to disinherit the (four), (Gitonga and Wanjiru) were purportedly invoking an old Kikuyu Customary Law," Mativo said.