A Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) report, DNA test results and court orders could unlock a Sh10 billion land battle in the family of former spy chief James Kanyotu.
On one side of the tussle for the Two Rivers Crescent Estate land are plot owners and a section of the family. Ms Margaret Nyakinyua Murigu and Mr Willy Kihara Kanyotu sit on the other side.
A letter by Wahome and Akedi Advocates, acting for Ms Murigu and Kangaita Coffee Estate Ltd, alleged that the plot owners illegally and fraudulently obtained transfers of the parcels of land belonging to Kangaita Coffee Estate.
Subsequently, Ms Murigu and Kangaita Coffee Estate Ltd lodged a complaint with the police, alleging illegal transfer and intermeddling with a deceased person’s property. Police recommended prosecution of an advocate who facilitated the land sales and transfers.
But siding with the plot owners facing eviction are Mr Kanyotu’s widows, Mary Wanjiku Kanyotu and Jane Gathoni Kanyotu, and his children, Christopher Ngata Kanyotu and Andrew Peter Ngirici.
Mary Wanjiku Kanyotu appears before the Senate Committee on Lands, Environment and Natural Resources at Bunge Tower, Nairobi, on Tuesday, July 28, 2026, during deliberations on a statement sought by Kiambu Senator Paul Karungo Thangwa regarding the directorship of Kangaita Coffee Estate.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
In 2001 and 2002, Kanyotu, through Kangaita Coffee Estate, placed newspaper advertisements in the local dailies offering for sale the half-acre plots through Kahari & Kiai Advocates. At the time, Kanyotu was the majority shareholder and one of the directors of Kangaita. Kanyotu died on February 14, 2008.
One of the advertisements was in the Daily Nation on February 5, 2001. There was another advert on June 20, 2002, in the same newspaper where the plots situated within Ruiru Township next to the police station were said to be going for Sh600,000.
In a document dated December 11, 2008, Ms Gathoni – as operations director at Kangaita – instructed lawyer Kahari to continue with the sale of the plots following a meeting between the vendor, the purchasers and the lawyer on December 7, 2008.
After Kanyotu died, Ms Wanjiku, Ms Gathoni and Ms Murigu were granted letters of administration of all the estate of the deceased by the court via a letter dated June 23, 2010.
The plot owners told the Nation that they bought the parcels between 2007 and 2008, with a sale transfer document between Ms Susan Muthoni Kaburu, who bought her two parcels in 2007, and Kangaita, executed on December 28, 2007, bearing Kanyotu’s signature. The document lists Kanyotu and his wife Gathoni as directors of Kangaita and has their photographs, ID numbers and signatures.
The late James Kanyotu.
Photo credit: File| Nation Media Group
Adding a fresh twist to the case is a letter by the DCI dated December 11, 2024, indicating that investigations into the sale of the plots, following complaints from Mr Kihara, revealed alleged fraud. According to the letter, the DCI concluded that the plots belonging to Kangaita were fraudulently sold.
“Investigations were conducted, and it was established that Joseph Waithaka Kahari sold parcels of land from Kangaita Coffee Estate Limited when there was a court order barring any dealings with the estate of the late Kanyotu until the cases filed by the beneficiaries of his estate are determined,” reads the letter. “We also did not find any evidence that Kangaita received any money from Joseph Waithaka Kahari.”
The letter, certified as an exhibit by Ruiru Sub-County DCI officer J Ndubai on January 29, 2025, indicated that the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advised that the advocate who handled the sale be charged with the offence of intermeddling with the properties of a deceased person.
In a letter received by the DPP on January 27, 2025, Mr Kihara’s lawyer, Ruiru Njoroge, inquired why Mr Kahari had not been charged despite a recommendation for prosecution by the DCI.
“Our client informs us that your office is yet to charge the named culprit; this is hampering our client’s effort to recover his property. Please, urgently let us know the status of this matter.”
According to lawyers representing Ms Murigu, a co-administrator of Kangaita Coffee Estate, and Mr Kihara, the contested parcels of land should not have been sold as there were existing court orders prohibiting the sale.
The position is supported by submissions to the Senate Land and Environment Committee by Interior Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen, who told the committee that the 74 plots were initially registered under Kangaita Coffee Estate, where Kanyotu was the majority shareholder owning 4,995 shares out of the total 5,000 shares.
After his death, the family filed a succession case No.1239 of 2008 at the High Court, which issued five court orders stipulating how the estate was to be administered.
A September 28, 2009 order by Justice G. Dulu, following an application by Ms Gathoni, issued an injunction restraining Ms Wanjiku, Mr Ngata, Mr Ngirici, Ken Njau, John Kariuki Kanyotu and Sandra Gathoni Njau, in person or through any of their agents, from further interfering with any of the properties registered in the names of the companies listed in the application, including Kangaita.
On October 25, 2011, Justice David Maraga issued further orders prohibiting any sale, lease, charge, transfer or any other disposal of all the assets of the deceased, including assets or properties registered in the names of the companies in which the deceased was, at the time of his death, the majority shareholder, until further orders were issued. The order was re-issued on October 27, 2016.
On the other hand, Justice Abida Aroni ordered that all considered beneficiaries of the estate of the late Kanyotu be allocated properties accordingly.
It is consequent to this order that Mr Murkomen claims Mr Kihara was allocated 13 assorted properties by the court during the distribution of the properties. He submitted that Mr Kihara is a legally recognised beneficiary of the estate of the late Kanyotu through a confirmed grant of letters of administration by the High Court signed by Justice Aroni on July 20, 2020, adding that the grant for letters of administration has never been disputed or set aside.
He also adds that the late Kanyotu gifted Mr Kihara 31 plots within the said estate on December 5, 2007.
The Nation is in possession of a document through which Kanyotu allegedly gave 31 plots within Two Rivers Crescent Estate to Mr Kihara as part of a “request for some capital to boost your business”. “I hereby consider giving you several plots at Ruiru to sell to raise the money required,” reads the document dated December 5, 2007.
However, the validity of the document has been challenged by the plot owners, who wonder how the document bore a fingerprint as a signature, yet Kanyotu was still alive by then and was signing other documents.
The court on March 13, 2014, ordered a DNA examination that was to be conducted by the Government Chemist on March 14, 2014, and the report was presented before the court on May 5, 2014.
But Ms Gathoni, through a caveat emptor in the Daily Nation dated September 6, 2023, claimed that the court had asked Mr Kihara in 2017 to submit himself for DNA testing, but he had failed and/or refused to submit himself for the same.
Ms Wanjiku told the Senate committee that Mr Kihara is an impostor and is not a biological son of the late Kanyotu, as had been proven through the ordered DNA test.
Lawyer Akedi dismissed the claims, saying the matter has already been settled and determined by the court via a partial certificate of confirmation of grant dated July 20, 2020.
“That for the avoidance of doubt, our client Margaret Nyakinyua Murigu who is one of the administrators of the Estate of James Kanyotu, confirms, which we hereby do, that Willy Kihara Kanyotu is a son to the deceased and a beneficiary in the Estate of James Kanyotu…,” said Ms Akedi.
She also challenged the inquiry by the committee, saying the matters under consideration are before the court via an application dated January 29, 2025 filed in the High Court.
She wanted the Senate committee stopped from interrogating and/or adjudicating over the legal status of the parcels of land, including verification of ownership records and the validity of title documents held by the residents, as the issues are before the court.
The advocate argued that the committee has no basis to delve into the matters and should allow the judicial process to run its course.
“The matter pertaining to the acquisition and ownership of the land in question is also the subject of criminal proceedings, and a recommendation for arrest of Advocate Kahari Kiai as well as his co-conspirators for fraud having been established was determined by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions,” said Ms Akedi.
But on September 10, the High Court lifted orders blocking the appearance of Mr Kihara before the Senate committee. However, the committee was warned against conclusively determining ownership or title, or deciding succession matters pending before the courts, as that would raise a different constitutional question by prejudicing pending litigation.
Through an application dated January 29, 2025, Ms Murigu through her advocate – Wahome and Akedi Advocates – filed an application seeking to set aside, cancel, discharge and/or extinguish any entry, transfer and/or registration on the certificates of title land reference numbers 11261/11, 11261/24, 11261/38, 11261/39, 11261/48 and 11261/51 in the respondents’ name.
Listed as respondents were Joseph Muragu, George Kariithji, Mwangi Kiarie, Patrick Ndungu Chege, Felistas Njeri Mwihia and Daniel Muikia
“That pending the hearing and determination of this application inter partes, this honourable court be pleased to issue an order of eviction evicting the respondents from the parcels of land with title numbers above,” read the application.
The applicant wanted the court to issue an order of permanent injunction preventing and prohibiting the respondents, by themselves, their agents and/or employees from entering and dealing in any way with the parcels of land.
This is because the court had issued several orders preserving the estate and, in particular, a September 28, 2009 order that preserved all the real estate, including property registered in the name of companies where Kanyotu was the majority shareholder.
The orders were given on September 28, 2009; June 25, 2016; October 28, 2011; and November 29, 2011.
“That the orders prohibiting alienation, selling, transferring or in any way whatsoever dealing with the properties registered in the name of companies where the deceased was a majority shareholder have not been varied, set aside or otherwise been discharged by a court of competent jurisdiction,” the orders read.
