An application by a man claiming to be former President Mwai Kibaki’s biological son has been moved to Nairobi.
Nyeri High Court Judge Florence Muchemi said Mr Jacob Ocholla’s plea, which had sought to have Mr Kibaki’s family disclose his estate, has been overtaken by events because the children have accepted probate by filing a succession suit at the High Court’s Family Division in Milimani, Nairobi.
“Currently, the citees in the suit – Judy Kibaki, Jimmy Kibaki, David Kagai and Anthony Githinji – have done what Mr Ocholla wanted them to do,” said the judge.
She directed that the matter be heard instead at the Nairobi High Court because Mr Ocholla has filed a response to the succession suit in Nairobi.
During the session yesterday, Mr Ocholla’s lawyer, Omoke Morara, requested to have the matter stayed in Nyeri, saying that in his reply to the succession suit in Nairobi, he requested the court to transfer the case to Nyeri.
But Justice Muchemi ruled that even if the matter were moved to Nyeri, it would still be enjoined with Mr Ocholla’s succession suit.
“Therefore, staying the matter by giving it another mention date will not serve any useful purpose as it is already before another court,” said the judge.
In her orders last month, Justice Muchemi directed Mr Kibaki’s family to file a response to Mr Ocholla’s application within 21 days.
But during Monday’s session, the Kibaki family’s lawyer, George Ndung’u, told the court that the family had not replied to the application because it has a similar succession suit in Nairobi.
Lawyer Ndung’u requested the court to withdraw the matter, arguing that the issues raised by Mr Ocholla would be addressed by the Milimani court.
In the suit, the 62-year-old Mr Ocholla demands to know if the former Head of State bequeathed to him any part of his wealth.
He had requested the court to compel the family to recognise him as the firstborn son of Kenya’s third President and to give him an equal share of the departed patriarch’s wealth.
Born in Kaloleni, Nairobi, in July 1960, Mr Ocholla told the court that Hillary Ocholla, whom he knew as his father, died on January 28, 1981, and that is when his mother told him that he had been adopted.
In court documents, he expressed fears that he might be left out in the succession process, adding that his attempts to contact Mr Kibaki’s children had failed.
