The family of former President Mwai Kibaki is in court over a wealth distribution dispute, in which one Jacob Ocholla Mwai and Ms JNL are demanding recognition as family members.
Ocholla and JNL had moved to court to compel Kibaki's family to add them on the list of beneficiaries of the former president's estates.
The petitioners asked the court to compel Kibaki's children to take a DNA test in order to establish the veracity of the claims, that they were sired by the former president and are, therefore, entitled to a share of his vast wealth.
While responding on Monday, November 14, to a civil suit filed by Ocholla and JNL, Kibaki's children rejected any attempt to force them into having a DNA test.
The two asked the court to order them together with Kibaki’s four children — Judy, James Mark Kibaki, David Kagai Kibaki and Anthony Andrew Githinji Kibaki — to be subjected to a DNA test to establish whether they are siblings of the same father.
Alternatively, Ocholla and JNL have asked the court to order for the exhumation of Kibaki’s body for extraction and collection of samples to be used in a DNA paternity test.
Through his Lawyer Morara Omoke, Ocholla indicated that “there are no known DNA samples of Kibaki that have been stored in a data bank or any other facility,” as such, exhumation is the only option for a paternity test.
However, Kibaki’s four children led by Judith Wanjiku opposed a DNA test proposal to establish whether they are siblings with the two persons.
Kibaki's children have avowed that a DNA test would violate their privacy and have urged the court to dismiss the request filed by Ocholla and a woman codenamed JNL.
The dispute escalated after a court-ordered mediation between the two sides collapsed, hence forcing Ocholla and JNL to return to the courtroom.
Ocholla and Ms JNL first moved to court immediately after the death and burial of former President Mwai Kibaki in April 2022 to claim a stake of his wealth.
The two wanted the court to recognise them as the children of the former president, and beneficiaries of Kibaki's multi-billion estates.
Kibaki's Lawyer revealed that the former president had shared his undeclared wealth equally among his four children — Judy, Jimmy, David and Anthony.
However, Kibaki who died on April 21 aged 90, only shared his wealth within his blood line and locked out his children-in-law from his multi-billion shillings wealth.
