The late retired President Mwai Kibaki left all his wealth to his four children, it has emerged.
Kibaki, in a Will authored and signed in December 2016, directed that all his wealth be shared equally among his three sons and daughter.
In the document filed in court, Kibaki appointed the four, Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, Tony Githinji, and David Kagi, as the executors of the Will.
The Head of State, however, locked out any of the children’s spouses from inheriting a share of his vast estate including his properties and money in his bank accounts.
“Following my own death then any direct blood descendants of theirs (but not any spouse or life partner) shall receive their parent’s benefit, if more than one in equal shares,” the Will reads.
The document, however, doesn’t disclose Kibaki’s net worth.
The wealth may be used to invest in his children and his grandchildren’s education, the Will shows.
Kibaki also directed that his personal effects, including personal papers, be bequeathed to Mwai Kibaki Foundation.
Kibaki’s Will challenged
Two people are, however, challenging the Will.
The two include a 62-year-old man identified as Jacob Ocholla and a woman ‘JNL’. The two claims to be Kibaki’s children.
JNL claims she was born when her mother and Kibaki were students in London. She claims to be the deceased’s firstborn child.
On his part, Ocholla, who also claims to be Kibaki’s firstborn child, alleges that the deceased was involved in a romantic relationship with his mother Jane Hilda Ocholla, an affair that led to his birth in July 1960.
According to the man, he learnt that he is related to Kibaki at the age of 21, after the passing on of his adopted father on January 28, 1981.
In a sworn affidavit filed before Justice Florence Muchemi, the petitioner claims his mother told him that the man he believed was his dad for two decades was not his biological father.
“It was the most shocking thing I had ever heard. The news left me distraught and with so many unanswered questions. All along I had grown up knowing that I was a Luo, only to realise that I was not,” Ocholla states in court papers.
He claims to have met Kibaki, for the first time in March 1981, at Hilton Hotel while in the company of his mother.
“Even when the time came for me to meet with him, even when he walked into the Amboseli Grill Foyer at Hilton hotel, I did not know he was my father, because he was someone I had known when I was growing up. He came and sat next to me. When orders were placed, my mother broke the news that Kibaki was my biological father,” Ocholla says adding that the former head of state was a close associate of his adopted father from their days at Makerere Univerisity, where they both schooled.
“He addressed me by name. Remember he was a close associate of my late adopted father, both having been students at Makerere. Indeed, it is in Uganda that he met my mother when she was visiting my adopted father, Ocholla. At one time, the two were even neighbours at Bahati estate in Nairobi.”
Ocholla claims to have met Kibaki severally after the meeting until 2002 when he became president. Apparently, he was blocked from seeing the president a couple of times.
During their meetings, the man who resembles Kibaki alleges, the country’s third president assured him of a share of his property.
“I met with my father four times in Nyari office NO.7 and I had conversations with him. He assured me that I was going to get my share of what I am entitled to as his son; my inheritance. In that year, 2016, my father promised that by November 30, 2016, he would have given me a letter detailing all my entitlements. I trusted my father because I have always trusted him so I was confident that he would honour his word,” the court papers filed through Ocholla’s lawyers, Omoke Morara and Peacela Atim read in part.
Since Kibaki’s demise in April this year, the petition says, the family has frustrated his efforts to get a share of his wealth.
Ocholla wants the family to recognise him as the firstborn son of the former head of state and make him eligible to inherit the property.
