Family of prominent Nairobi businessman lives in poverty as battle for millions rages 24 years on

NAIROBI: For the last 24 years, the family of a former prominent Nairobi businessman have been engaged in an unending legal tussle over his multi-million shilling estate.

Mr Stanley Muriuki, a polygamist, died on November 9, 1990 triggering a dispute between the children of his two wives; Veronicah Wacuka (first wife) and Elizabeth Wathenya.

The dispute has rendered the prime property left behind by their late father in Nairobi and other parts of the country of little or no help to his family, even as the children fight great financial challenges.

In the case now before the Court of Appeal, Wacuka seven children are fighting for the right to own part of their father’s estate.

The children, Jackson Mugo Wanderi, Jane Gathigia, William Ngare, David Miano, Margaret Waithera, Winnie Rose Wangu and Ephraim Gikandi speak of frustration, foul play, neglect and delayed justice. Their attempts to gain access to the estate through court orders have not been fruitful.

Among the seven children, Mr Gikandi bears the greatest pain. The 53-year-old is bedridden with stroke and depends on his brothers to fend for his five children.

Gikandi says he has been left out in the cold, sick and poor despite others benefiting from millions of shillings emanating from property that was transferred after a court ruling which allegedly split Muriuki’s family into two.

After Muriuki’s death, his property was placed under the care of public trustees until each of the family got their own share. However, they accuse the trustees of mismanaging the estate in breach of court orders.

In the matter before the Court of Appeal, the seven children also accuse their trustees of transferring part of the property and collecting rent, a task entrusted to the trustees.

“I have no land to cultivate or to be buried in or a house of my own. I live a life of a destitute, relying on hand-outs from my friends and relatives in a rented room in Nyeri town. I must say that poverty would not have struck me had the public trustee officers managed my father’s property well since 2002,” Gikandi says in a letter addressed to the Attorney General.

According to him, the court had issued orders barring the family from interfering with the property in the succession suit. The orders issued by the High Court restricted them from transferring property to beneficiaries or disposing off any of the assets, says Gikandi who accuses the trustees and his step mother of not obeying the court orders.

The seven children allege that a prime property near Pangani Girls Secondary School in Nairobi, estimated to be worth Sh200 million, had changed hands despite the court case.

They claim that they informed that the file for the property and another in Zimmerman were missing when they visited the Ministry of Land’s office.

“This long journey has been frustrating and has not borne any justice for 24 years. My brother has been languishing in poverty and sickness despite our father owning even ranches. All these (property) is not helping us especially Gikandi, who needs the money more than all of us,” Miano, Gikandi’s brother says.

The family is seeking to have the matter before the Court of Appeal settled.