The children of former Transport Minister John Michuki are embroiled in a fiery court battle over the late minister's vast wealth, the Daily Nation reported on Tuesday, October 22.
In 1988, Michuki established the luxurious Windsor Golf Hotel and Country Club, a Victorian-style recreation facility that covered over 200 acres in Nairobi’s upmarket Ridgeways Estate.
Michuki's wealth was managed by his wife following his death in February 2012 before her death six months later. The couple's death set the stage for an ugly court battle between their six children over the management of the family's billions.
In May 2019, last-born daughter Yvonne Wanja filed a case in a bid to revoke a court document that gave the mandate to her elder siblings Anne Wanjiru Mutahi and Fredrick Chege to manage the multi-billion shillings estate.
According to the Daily Nation, Wanja accused Wanjiru and Chege of mismanaging their family wealth and channeling some of the money into their personal use.
The chartered financial analyst claims her siblings have not disclosed their mother’s June 7, 2012, last wish which makes full disclosure of the assets. Wanja stated that her elder siblings did not annex copies of titles, share certificates, details of directors and vehicle ownership on the document.
“The respondents have willingly failed to diligently administer the estate. They have hoodwinked the beneficiaries that they wish the estate to be distributed. All businesses under the estate have performed worse, year after year and debts have increased,” Wanja stated in court papers.
Wanja revealed that two companies with a similar name, Mika Holdings Limited were incorporated, apparently to cash in on the family’s Windsor Park Phase 1 houses, whose proceeds have never been accounted for, and which in her estimation amount to not less than Sh1.6billion.
The said Mika Holdings Limited was registered in foreign jurisdictions.
Wanja revealed that her siblings had not declared income flow from the sale of the Windsor Park houses or the collections of monthly service dues from homeowners therein, amounting to Ksh60,000 per house, each month.
She also accused her sister, Anne Wanjiku Mutahi, of conceptualising projects whose soundness and sheer scale defied financial logic.
In May, Anne and Chege in a replying affidavit to younger sister Wanja's claims sated;
“It is apparent that the applicant is not interested in the confirmation of grant but rather in picking fights. The content of the supporting affidavits is malicious and untrue.
"The same is intended to tarnish the respondents’ reputation. The first respondent was not aware of our mother’s last instructions to her lawyer.”
