Yvonne Wanja Michuki, the lastborn of former powerful Cabinet minister John Michuki, walked into the offices of Agimba & Associates Advocates on September 19, 2018 seeking legal assistance over her father’s estate.
The firm billed Ms Wanja Sh128,000 for the four-hour meeting, which started an advocate-client relationship, whose aim was to ensure her father’s wealth is split equally among the six siblings.
But seven months later, she fired her lawyers and they presented her a bill for the services offered until May 20, 2019.
The bill offered insights into how expensive it can be for families to fight over property in court as the firm demands Sh184 million from Ms Wanja for its services. She had paid a Sh800,000 deposit when their relationship was still rosy.
The firm says in court papers that it deserves Sh166.5 million, while Sh17.5 million is intended to pay levies to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Ms Wanja has been fighting her siblings since 2018 over alleged mismanagement of their father’s estate that has led to accumulation of debts to flagship businesses like the Windsor Golf Hotel & Country Club.
Mr Michuki died on February 12, 2012 while undergoing treatment at Aga Khan Hospital, Nairobi. His wife, Josephine Watiru Michuki, died on August 22, 2012.
In his will, the former minister asked that half his estate be left to his wife and the rest to their six children.
Ms Watiri, in her will, left her property to the children. This meant that all the family wealth was left to the six siblings. Mr Michuki’s will was to be executed by former politician Kenneth Matiba, who died on April 15, 2018.
Five months after Matiba’s death, Ms Wanja met with Ms Ann Agimba, a partner at Agimba & Associates Advocates.
The youngest of Mr Michuki’s children insists that it’s no longer possible to work with her siblings and that the only way forward is to have a valuation of assets done for purposes of equally splitting what is left of the enviable estate.
Though Ms Wanja parted ways with her lawyers, she went on with the case. Her biggest grievances are with Anne Mutahi and Fred Chege, who were given authority to manage their parents’ estates until the court decides whether or not to make their powers permanent.
She has accused the two of mismanagement and watching over unnecessary liability growth at the family’s most iconic business, the Windsor Golf Hotel.
By the time Ms Wanja filed applications to revoke the authority given to Ms Mutahi and Mr Chege, Mr Michuki’s hospitality business had acquired liabilities of Sh625 million.
While the Covid-19 pandemic dealt a huge blow to the industry, the hotel’s liabilities are most likely to have increased, much like those of its competitors.
Documents filed in court show that Agimba & Associates Advocates charged Ms Wanja Sh32,000 for each hour spent during meetings at the firm’s offices on the first floor of Riara Corporate Suites in Kilimani, Nairobi. The longest meeting lasted seven hours on October 13, 2018.
Ms Wanja met lawyers at least 33 times over seven months. In some instances, the meetings went on for hours, which pushed the bill past the Sh2 million mark.
The biggest expense, however, was on issuance of instructions to pursue Ms Wanja’s demands in court, which the firm charged Sh105 million.
For each time a lawyer attended to Ms Wanja outside the meetings, she was billed Sh27,000. Whenever the firm sent documents on behalf of Ms Wanja, it charged between Sh220 and Sh7,500.
The bills claimed by the firm have angered Ms Wanja, who has contested them in court.
Ms Wandia Nyamu, the deputy registrar of the High Court’s family division will on Friday deliver a ruling on how much Agimba & Associates Advocates can collect from Ms Wanja.
When a client and advocate fall out on costs claimed, the lawyers file their bill of costs with the deputy registrar of the division in which the case was filed.
The deputy registrar then reviews the bill and omits any amounts deemed to be unnecessary, or lowers others that could be high. The process is referred to as taxation in legal circles.
In claiming legal fees, lawyers consider the value of the subject matter at the heart of the dispute.
In instances where the subject matter is worth billions, such as the John and Josephine Michuki estates, the legal fees are likely to be higher.
After parting ways with Agimba & Associates, Ms Wanja hired another lawyer, Wanja G. Wambugu, to contest the Sh184 million legal fees.
