A Kenyan living in the United Kingdom (UK) has narrated how he lost assets worth Ksh20 billion bequeathed to him by his late father to his relatives who are based in Mombasa.
Appearing before a Mombasa court on Thursday, February 10, the businessman recounted that the empire began crumbling after his father's health started deteriorating in 2003, with everything collapsing after his demise.
His father was a renowned businessman in the coastal city and managed to accumulate wealth and assets from his different ventures.
The man accused his uncle together with other business partners of plotting to disinherit him from the multi-billion estate.
He also told the court that he was forcefully evicted from one of their family mansions in Nyali, Mombasa leaving him homeless. He accused his uncle of also denying him access to the property.
Mombasa magistrate, Vincent Adet, heard that the scheme to take over the assets was hatched by forging signatures and defrauding the companies they co-owned.
The signed documents granted them access to the said property including his businesses.
In a bid to block his relatives from accessing his late father's empire, he wrote several emails asking them to vacate the family house in Nyali and handover all the businesses keys.
The UK based Kenyan is now pushing to have his relatives blocked from taking what was entrusted to him. The accused however denied all the allegations.
Upon hearing his submission, Magistrate Adet scheduled the next hearing for June 2022, when the verdict will be made.
In Kenya, inheritance is guided by laws enshrined in the constitution with most being in the Succession Act.
They stipulate how property is shared in cases where the deceased leaves a written will and in other cases where a will is missing.
"If the deceased person did not have a spouse or child, the estate goes first to the father, then to the mother if the father is deceased. If both parents are deceased, it goes to the brothers and sisters if there are any, then to their children," the law reads in part.
