The property row involving members of the family of Jomo Kenyatta-era Cabinet minister, Mbiyu Koinange, seems to be coming to an end.
This is after Koinange’s last born daughter, Lennah Wanjiku, dropped her appeal against an order that required her to surrender the title deed to an 88-acre piece of land.
On June 26, a court ruling ordered her to surrender the land adjacent to Two-Rivers Mall in Nairobi ahead of distribution of the assets.
“We will not be pursuing the appeal. Pursuing it will only prolong the dispute,” her lawyer Ochieng Oduol noted.
“Our client will be asking the court to offer her preference over the property during the distribution of the assets. Everyone knows she has developed it and that is where she resides. We will return the title to court as directed,” he added.
She was ordered to surrender the land so as to set dates for the court to distribute the late minister's assets, estimated to be worth around Ksh10 billion, to the family.
The Supreme Court found that Koinange had four wives and not two as some family members had insinuated.
In the ruling, the court also noted that the property had to be shared among all the dependents of Koinange.
She told the court to give her priority in the said property as she lives on it and had even made Ksh450 million investments on it.
The disputed assets include one of the biggest undeveloped plots in the Nairobi central business district, a Ksh2 billion holding next to the Reinsurance Plaza.
There are also shares in numerous firms, including Magadi Soda, BAT, Centum and Limuru Dairy, as well as multi-billion shilling land and buildings in Kiambu, Nakuru and Mombasa.
