Kenyan woman in Sh100m estate battle with Australian

A Kenyan woman is fighting in court with her estranged Australian lover for her share of a Sh100 million estate in Diani, Kwale County.

Ms Lucy Wanjiku Muku and Karl Salzmann are fighting over the property, mainly comprising holiday homes located on the second-row beach plots.

In the case before Justice Eric Ogola, Ms Wanjiku alleges that she met Mr Salzmann, a world gourmet traveller, while working in hotel industry in Germany.

They dated before deciding to move to Kenya to start a joint investment.

She argues that though they were not legally married, the presumption of marriage arises between them by virtue of their long cohabitation.

Ms Wanjiku claims that they incorporated Karl Salzmann Limited, listed as first affected party in the dispute, with her being the majority shareholder with 51 shares while Mr Salzmann holding 49 shares.

“The petitioner and the first respondent identified a parcel of land…owned by Bharatkumar Girdharlal Thaker. The petitioner and the first respondent purchased the same at Sh8,000,000.

“However, the property was transferred to the first affected party’s name due to the cordial relations which the petitioner and the first respondent had,” she says.

The petitioner represented by lawyer Gikandi Ngibuini claims they subdivided the land into plots and sold two and retained the rest for future development.

She accuses Mr Salzmann of fleecing her share of their property and further failing to disclose profits they gained from the sale of two beach houses in 2013 and 2015 at Sh46 million and further selling Karl Salzmann Limited.

“The first affected party is also involved in the business of selling wine, cheese and ham which is distributed under name of Gourmet Traveller. The same has been sold to Paul Van Beveren and Paul Van Windesandmore Ltd and now owned by Karl Salzmann and Paul Van Beveren.”