The High
Court has upheld the validity of the will of a British national that had been
disputed by Nairobi businesswoman Agnes Kagure and Plover Haunt Limited.
Justice
Hillary Chemitei, in a judgment delivered on June 19, vindicated lawyer Guy
Spencer Elms as the executor of the Will of late British national Roger Bryan
Robson.
Both Agnes
Kagure and Plover Haunt Limited had filed objections, seeking to have the grant
issued to Guy Spencer annulled and revoked.
Robson, who
died on August 8, 2012, left a written Will dated March 27, 1997, in which he
appointed Guy Spencer and Sean Battye as executors and trustees of his estate.
Sean Battye
later renounced his executorship after he left Kenya.
In his
judgment, Justice Chemitei said he found no evidence that Robson had been
coerced or was mentally unfit when he wrote the Will outlining the distribution
of his estate.
“I have
perused the original Will on record and in my view, there is nothing to fault.
It was executed by the deceased, and as a matter of fact, he signed all the
pages. The same was witnessed by two persons and was drafted by an advocate,”
Chemitei said.
Spencer has
been embroiled in a protracted legal battle to protect Robson’s estate and has
previously been charged in relation to the property.
Haunt’s director, Thomas Mutaha, claimed Robson had been a family friend and had transferred the
property to him as a gift, without any sale agreement.
Kagure, meanwhile, claimed to have bought part of Robson’s land in Karen.
In his Will,
Robson had wished for the Karen property, which borders Ngong Forest, to be
gifted to the Kenya Wildlife Service, the Kenya Forest Service, and an
education charity.
Kagure,
however, alleged that she had bought the land and accused Spencer of forging
Robson’s will. Robson had no children but left money to a nephew.
He did not
name Kagure in any testamentary documents, although the city businesswoman
maintained in court that she was a bona fide purchaser.
Kagure
presented several witnesses, including DCI officer Felix Kalasya, who said he was
involved in a criminal investigation in a case at the magistrate’s court where
Mutaha was the suspect.
Another witness for Kagure was Cyrus Ngatia, who said he was a Deputy Solicitor General and had earlier worked at the Registrar of Companies.
He, however, denied having
signed the certificate of incorporation of September 2015 when Kagure claimed
to have bought the land.
Guy Spencer
also called several witnesses, including Michael Fairfax Robson, the brother of
Rodger Robson.
Fairfax whose testimony was key in the case de
