When he arrived in Kenya around 1950, Richard Ingram Crawford, a British settler, embarked on exploiting his interests in farming and business.
He settled on a vast parcel of land at Mwariki in Nakuru County, where he practised horticulture and kept pets, including dogs and donkeys.
Crawford also ventured into multi-million-shilling businesses, establishing a number of petrol stations and enterprises, including the Blue Cross Kennels.
Those who interacted with him say, he was a generous man and was on good terms with his neighbours and workers.
However, the enormous wealth that he acquired and the way he lived has led to a vicious court battle between his aides, business partners and friends, who are all scrambling for a piece of his wealth after his death.
Mr Crawford died a bachelor in 2014. He had been attacked by robbers in 2008, and was seriously injured. Doctors said he developed Parkinson’s disease, which led to a loss of memory that lasted until his death.
And with no apparent heir to his wealth, and no information regarding his family, his personal secretary, Ms Sarah Joslyn, petitioned for the administration of the estate.
Crawford’s adopted family
She instituted succession proceedings in 2014, and what would have been a simple procedural matter has snowballed into a titanic court battle between individuals seeking to benefit from the property.
The other parties include Mr Stephen Ngatia Maina, who claims to be Crawford’s adopted family, and former workers who lived on Crawford's land.
The court is now grappling with scanty information in separating the truth from mere claims.
“Richard Crawford, by all accounts, was not married, had no children and no known family in Kenya or elsewhere. It would seem that the deceased had quite some property. Who the property should be bequeathed to has become a titanic legal battle between two protagonists.”
The fight has seen Ms Joslyn and her lawyer Henry Aminga charged in court with forgery and making of false documents and uttering them before the court registry.
In the criminal matter, Ms Joslyn is accused of conspiring with Mr Aminga to forge documents used to petition for the letters of administration of the Crawford estate.
According to the prosecution, the two jointly conspired with others to defraud Crawford of his property by forging his signature to authorise transfer of his land on diverse dates in 2011.
Ms Joslyn was arrested and charged after Mr Ngatia raised the alarm over the documents she used to obtain the letters of administration.
Mr Ngatia reported the matter to the police, whose investigation led to the conclusion that the documents were a forgery.
In a will in the possession of Ms Joslyn, and purportedly authored by Crawford on January 9, 2009, the tycoon allegedly appointed her the executor to his estate and gave her all his assets.
Among the property named in the document is a 16-acre parcel of prime land about five kilometres from Nakuru town on the Nakuru-Nairobi highway, touching the tarmac; a vehicle; money in the account, as well as shares in his Blue Cross Kennels Foundation.
“I appoint as the sole executor and trustee of this will my friend Sarah Joslyn, and subject to the payment of all my Kenyan debts and executorship expenses, I give her the whole of my Kenyan Estate for her own use and benefit,” reads part of the will.
Mr Ngatia further moved to court and successfully applied for the revocation of the grant of probate, which was suspended in 2017.
Through lawyer Mwangi Waiganjo, Mr Ngatia, a businessman in Nakuru, said he was the son of John Maina, Crawford’s business partner, whose family had been adopted by Crawford.
He told the court that Crawford and his late father were close friends and business partners who had ventured into the fuel business in Nakuru.
The two had partnered to run businesses at Shell and BP petrol stations, and Lanet Enterprises, before the dealership was withdrawn in 1997.
“Upon the collapse of their joint business, my father moved into one of Mr Crawford’s parcels (of land) and erected a petrol filling station in 2001, which he ran until his demise in 2005,” said Mr Ngatia.
He maintained that the two families lived as one, to a point where Crawford promised to leave his property to his business partner’s family as the beneficiaries.
The High Court dismissed an application by Mr Aminga to quash the criminal proceedings in December 2019.
The succession matter, which was to be heard yesterday, failed as the judge was away.
