Succession: Kibaki’s Hidden Wealth And Partners Revealed In Court

In what is now turning into an ugly succession battle between the late President Mwai Kibaki’s family and his alleged kids, a can of worm has been opened disclosing the vast empire of the former Kenya’s head of state.

Fresh documents filed in court by a woman claiming to be former President Mwai Kibaki’s daughter indicate that he might have had more wealth than what his family indicated.

The woman, codenamed JNL, accuses Kibaki’s children of failing to tell the court that Kenya’s third president was worth more than they indicated in the succession case.

According to JNL, Kibaki was worth more than Sh50 million.

“This fact was well known and within the knowledge of the petitioners but they did not disclose it to the court when they filed the petition for grant of probate as they only disclosed that my father left behind an estate worth less than Sh50 million only,” said JNL.

JNL was responding to the succession case filed by Kibaki’s children – Judith Wanjiku, James Mark Kibaki, David Kagai Kibaki, and Anthony Githinji Kibaki.

In her documents, the woman said that she opted to conduct a search which indicated Kibaki was a director and shareholder of blue-chip companies.

The first company she conducted a search on was Roirie Investment Company Limited. According to her, the firm is listed as a shareholder or director of International House Limited.

The shareholding, according to her, is 27,000 out of the total 100,000 shares.

“My father is the majority shareholder of Roirie Investment Limited with 999 ordinary shares out of 100 shares. This fact was not disclosed to the court by the petitioners, despite the fact that David Kagai Kibaki and Anthony Andrew Githinji are aware that they are directors of Roirie Investment Limited,” she claimed.

Further, she said, Wanjiku is a shareholder of Roirie with one ordinary share.

In her documents, International House Limited is worth two million nominal capital shares. There are two types of shares; ordinary A and B and they are worth Sh20 each. According to the CR12, the listed shareholders are the estate of the late Christopher John Kirubi, Mwaki Kibaki, Mary Ann Kirubi and Robert Maina Kirubi as trustees of Intertrust, Kiruma Holdings Limited and Stephen Njoroge Waruhiu.

Others are Roirie Investment, David Kagai Kibaki, Robert Maina, Angela Pearl Namwakira, and Mary Ann Kirubi.

“It is clear that the petitioners were very economical with the truth and misrepresentation or withheld truthful facts from the court.

“It is therefore clear that my father held a total 20,033 ordinary shares plus another 27,000 ordinary shares through his company Roirie Investment Company Limited, making him the half shareholder of International House Limited that owns International Life House with a total 47,033 shares out of the total 100,000,” she said.

The other company in JNL’s claim is Lucia and Company Limited. In Lucia, she said Kibaki owned 69 out 100 shares.

In Lucia, those listed are Kagai (director), Wanjiku (director), Gucharam Das Tandon, former First Lady Lucy Muthoni Kibaki (director or shareholder), Patrick Kamau Gacheru (secretary) and Kibaki.

The other company in JNL’s reply is Gingalili (1968) Limited which has Githinji, the former president, his wife, and Wanjiku as directors or shareholders.

JNL also produced the CR12 of Pinpoint Investments Limited. The document indicates Kibaki and Wanjiku are the shareholders while Kamau is the secretary.

Two days before Christmas Eve of 2016, Kibaki penned his signature to a six-page document and sealed his wishes on how he intended to pass his wealth to his generation.

With four strikes of a pen, Kenya’s third president and an economist by profession mapped out how his earthly wealth would be increased by his children and his legacy name etched from one generation to another.

Kibaki, in his will, kept his children-in-law out of his succession matrix and ordered that his wealth should be managed through a holding company.

Kibaki’s will, written three years after his exit from the government that he served for 10 years, meticulously details his preferred interment place, his executors, specific gifts, residues, and how his grandchildren will inherit the wealth.

In the will, Kibaki appointed his children Judy Wanjiku, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai and Anthony Githinji as the executors. He instructed them to work as a one unit and not as independent executors.

“I appoint my children to be joint and not several executors and executrix of my will,” Kibaki said in the will, adding that he would refer to the four as his children. According to him, cash in bank which is under his sole name should be distributed equally and absolutely between them.

At the same time, Kibaki directed that any amount of identified assets ought to be distributed according to the will and memorandum which would be addressed to the executors.

Kibaki also wished that his personal effects should be bequeathed to the Mwai Kibaki Foundation. According to the will, the effects that include his personal papers may not be disposed by the foundation.

If the Mwai Kibaki Foundation will not have been established, he directed that his personal effects be given to any other charitable organisation that would be founded in his memory.

Kibaki said that the assets, personal effects and money that he had not gifted his children and which would remain after sorting out his debts and duties would be treated as residue and be transferred to a holding company.

According to him, he and his children would be shareholders in the firm but upon his death, his shares would be evenly distributed to the children.

He, however, had a caveat that executors would issue the shares only if each of his children agreed to be bound by a shareholding agreement.

Kibaki was among the administrators of his wife Lucy’s wealth. She was estimated to be worth around Sh200 million. Mama Lucy died at Bupa Cromwell Hospital in London aged 80 on April 26, 2016.

Her estate comprised of prime properties in Mombasa, money in banks and shares in a blue chip company. In addition to his, the heirs may be solidifying their count in the millionaire’s club.

However, JNL and Jacob Ocholla Mwai are opposed to the succession process, arguing that Kibaki did not include them in the will albeit them being his children.

JNL narrated that she was born in 1961. According to her, her mother and the late Kibaki met while they were both students in the United Kingdom in late 1950s.

In another set of fresh court filing, her mother who is now 98 years has affirmed her story.

“H.E Emilio Mwai Kibaki is the biological father of my daughter,” said the woman, codenamed NML.

According to her, she met Kibaki in the UK in the late 1950s. At that time, she said, Kibaki was in London School of Economics and Political Science studying economics, while she was in the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine studying nutrition.

“Our relationship continued even after we both returned to Kenya, having completed our studies, and having taken up jobs. Out of the relationship, the above named daughter was born on Friday, December 1, 1961 at the Aga Khan Hospital Nairobi,” claimed NML.

She said that Kibaki was aware about it and he knew about her progress over the years. In her application, JNL claimed that she had tried to involve a Catholic Church bishop to have Kibaki’s four children meet for a possible out-of-court settlement.

“In recognition of the familial relationships, I made efforts on numerous occasions to reach out to the petitioners multiple times with a view of finding a resolve to the succession cause amicably,” says JNL, adding that her efforts were in vain.