- Women claim they are legitimate wives of Jonathan and they and their children are entitled to a share of his estate
- Sylvia denies excluding them, says she is not seeking letter of administration of estate but limited authority to pay rents and rates
Image: COURTESY
Two women and a creditor have opposed a plea by the late Jonathan Moi’s widow Sylvia to be given powers to manage his multimillion-shilling estate.
The two women and their children claim Sylvia is out to disinherit them. Their children are out of school due to lack of fees, they say.
Beatrice Mbuli and Faith Mburu say they were legally married to Jonathan but now face the imminent threat of being denied their share of the estate of their late husband.
They accuse Sylvia of claiming to be the only widow and dashing to court to seek letters of administration to their exclusion.
In her application for limited grant, Sylvia says she needs to manage the estate to pay rents due.
At the time of his death Jonathan owned parcels of land and was a shareholder in several companies.
Some of the properties, Sylvia says, have accrued rent and rates for which demands had been made and she needs to pay to avoid incurring penalties.
She informed the court she was in the process of collating her late husband’s properties which would take time and in the meantime she needed a limited grant.
Under limited grant, Sylvia indicated she would have no powers to distribute the estate.
But Beatrice and Faith read malice on the part of Sylvia whom they say failed to inform them.
In her application through lawyer Ken Nyaundi, Beatrice says she has been omitted together with her children from the list of beneficiaries in an attempt to disinherit her and bar her from participating in the administration of her late husband’s estate.
Sylvia, she says, did not obtain her consent and that of her children who hold an equal right to the grant.
Beatrice who filed her objection three days late says that it was not malicious because she wasn’t even aware of the fact that Sylvia had filed for letters of administration of the estate of Jonathan.
She is seeking an extension of time to file her objection to the grant.
“Unless the court exercises its unfettered discretion and allows the extension of time within which to file the objection to the making of the grant, the applicant and her children who are the lawful heirs to the estate stand to be prejudiced and lose out on their inheritance,” Beatrice says.
She told the court her children were in urgent need of school fees, school related expenses plus monthly maintenance which was provided by their late father.
“Therefore, reasonable provision for the children needs to be made and the same cannot be sought as the applicant and children will have been barred from objecting to the grant being issued to respondents to their exclusion,” she says.
Faith, who also identified herself as a wife of the deceased, has asked the court to allow her file an objection.
She was married to Jonathan through Kikuyu customary law in December 2008 and together they have three children.Faith also complained of being left out by Sylvia.
She says because Sylvia had refused to provide for her and three children she has ended up incurring debt such as school fees.
Her children, she says, are currently out of school after being kicked out due to lack of fees.
She told the court her children would suffer great harm should the court not allow her to participate in the case objecting to grant of letters of administration.
Also opposed to grant of letter of administration to Sylvia is Joshua Kipkemoi Mutai. He held power of general attorney over the estate granted to him by Jonathan.
He says the late Jonathan had creditors who needed to be paid and claims by Sylvia that he was worth a paltry Sh30 million were wrong.
Mutai accuses the widow of misrepresenting facts to court when she indicated the estate had no liabilities. He wants to be co- administrator of the estate.The case comes up for mention on November 26.