The succession battle involving the Sh17 billion estate of former assistant minister John Keen started yesterday with one of his daughters saying she will show that the Will allegedly written by the politician in 2015 was invalid.
Appearing before Justice Hillary Chemitei, Victoria Naishorua Keen said in her opening statement that her late father lacked ‘testamentary capacity’ to write the will dated December 15, 2015.
Justice Hillary Chemitei.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
Ms Naishorua, the firstborn daughter of Keen, maintained that the Will was invalid and therefore, the grant of probate dated April 4, 2017, should be revoked immediately and for the court to make appropriate orders on the administration of the estate.
“The applicant will prove that the questioned signatures of the Deceased, including those on the purported last will and Testament dated December 2, 2015, in comparison with known signatures of the Deceased, are all forgeries,” she said.
Mr Keen died on December 25, 2016, aged 88 and was buried at his Osilalaei farm on December 30, 2016.
Mr Keen’s first wife, Gladwell Wairimu Keen, whom he married in December 1957, bore him six children, while the second, Mary Njeri Keen, had five children.
The third wife, Rosemary Sanau Keen, had two children, and the last wife, Jane Wamuyu Keen, had one child.
Before he died, Mr Keen had allegedly gifted his dependants some properties, which were captured in the Will, to all four houses.
Ms Naishorua said in the statement that it was during the funeral that they were informed by his step-brother- Anthony Simel Keen- that their father had left a Will with the law firm of Maina Wachira & Company Advocates.
The family was then invited for the reading of the Will on January 4, 2017, at their home in Karen.
While being led by her lawyer Philip Murgor, Ms Naishorua admitted that the Will was read in the presence of family members and others.
Politician John Keen in February, 1990. PHOTO | FILE
She, however, said that she and her siblings were ‘extremely shocked at the unfair distribution’ of the estate.
According to her, the distribution favoured the second and third houses, against the first (Gladwell’s) house.
Ms Naishorua said she will also prove allegations of intermeddling with the property and disposal of some assets belonging to the estate, before the grant of probate was confirmed.
She further complained that the house of Gladwell, who died in 2020, had been given a raw deal in the Will.
She had earlier urged the court, in the interest of justice, to intervene and redistribute the estate of their late father fairly, equitably and proportionately among the beneficiaries.
But in a ruling in January 2023, Justice Aggrey Muchelule (then High Court judge) ruled all the wives, children and grandchildren were provided for in the Will.
The judge said that although Mr Keen indicated that he had no obligation to provide for his grandchildren, he had, out of his own free will, provided for them.
In one of the clauses in the Will, Mr Keen had asked the Trustees to cater for the grandchildren’s education and to give those over 21 and not in school such monies to enable them to advance in life.
