The family of former Nakuru North MP Dickson Kihika Kimani is embroiled in a dispute over the multi-million-shilling properties he acquired during his lifetime.
Immediately after his death in 2004, the firebrand Kanu politician's seven wives were locked in a court battle for the control of his estate, which has sucked in their children.
What started as a succession battle has spawned other criminal and civil suits at the Nakuru Law Courts.
The court named four of the widows — Margaret Wambui Kihika, Alice Mukuhi Kihika, Mary Wangari Kihika and Miriam Warau Kihika — as co-administrators of the Sh600 million estate in 2009.
The grant is, however, yet to be confirmed after the widows and their children failed to agree on the distribution.
The late former Nakuru North MP Dickson Kihika Kimani with two of his wives.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Unfit to administer estate
Later, three children unsuccessfully petitioned the court seeking to replace their mothers as administrators.
Ms Florence Nduta Kihika, Mr Anthony Gichia Kihika and Ms Judy Muthoni Kihika accused their mothers of mismanaging their father’s estate.
They argued that some of their mothers were senile, sickly and unfit to administer the estate.
Even as the succession suit went on, one of Kihika’s daughters, Ms Peris Njoki, was battling for her freedom after she was convicted in 2015 of assaulting her step-sister, Ms Caroline Wanjiku.
The High Court, however, overturned her conviction in 2020 for what it termed an unfair trial by the lower court.
Justice Rachael Ng'etich noted that the lower court failed to consider that the evidence produced in court pointed to bad blood between the two sisters, who had an unresolved dispute over their father’s estate and a succession case in the family courts.
In the latest matter, one of the widows, Ms Margaret Wambui, has sued two of Kihika’s daughters for trespassing on her 50-acre parcel of land in Njoro.
In the application before Justice Ng'etich, Ms Wambui seeks orders to restrain Ms Hellen Wangari and Erishifa Wanjiru from interfering in any way with the land.
“The applicant urges the court to grant conservatory orders of injunction, restricting the respondents and their servants from interfering with her possession of the suit land,” reads the application.
The court will make its ruling on February 11, 2021.
