20 lucky cousins win right to share wealth left by Nakuru bachelor billionaire uncle
Twenty lucky cousins will share the vast wealth of their uncle who died a bachelor and without an heir to his estate.
A family court in Nakuru has directed that the estate of Kariu Nyange, a wealthy businessman in Njoro, be distributed equally among his 20 nephews and nieces.
Nyange, a timber manufacturer who died on February 22, 2003, without a will, owned a number of properties and businesses in Nakuru, among them a multi-million-shilling sawmill in Njoro.
Nyange also owned hundreds of acres in Njoro town, Rare, Lanet and Mau as well as prime plots in Nakuru city, Gilgil and Njoro towns.
He also owned shares at NIC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, East African Breweries Ltd as well as the Kituo Service Station Company.
He owned some commercial buildings including the Njoro House in Nakuru city.
The court, however, wants the administrators to organise the list of the property in a manner that it can decipher.
Letters of administration
Upon his death, four of his nephews namely Norman Njuguna Nganga, John Wanyange Mwangi, Lucy Wangui Chege and Grace Wanjiru Waweru successfully applied for letters of administration, which were granted on December 1, 2016.
But trouble set in at the confirmation of the grant stage, when the four nephews disagreed on the mode of distribution of the estate.
Mr Wanyange, a son of the tycoon’s elder brother who filed for the confirmation of the grant, wanted to be ranked highest in terms of priority in the sharing of the estate.
Mr Wanyange argued that after the death of his father, Nyange had inherited his mother Ruth Nduta (also deceased), making her the direct heir to the estate.
Mr Wanyange alleged that Nyange had married his mother and since she had died, he had to inherit her share besides his own.
Supported all his needs
He told the court that the tycoon had built his mother two houses where they lived together and that he also supported all his needs.
Another issue that arose was whether or not Mr Samuel Ng’ang’a Ndirangu was a dependant of the deceased.
Mr Ng’ang’a had claimed that Nyange was his stepfather and that he worked for him from 1980 to the time of his death. He said that he was entitled to a portion of the estate.
The three other administrators, however, objected to Mr Wanyange’s mode of distribution and maintained that the property be distributed equally among the 20 nephews and nieces.
The three maintained that their rich uncle had no known wife and that he supported the children of his brothers and sisters “without any form of favouritism”.
Wife of the late
Justice Hillary Chemitei, in his judgment of March 31, 2023, however, found that the deceased’s magnanimity to the house of Nduta, including Nduta herself, was purely philanthropic and “in line with African socialism where one carried the responsibilities of his siblings in the event of death or such other tragedy”.
“The late Ruth Nduta was not a wife of the late Kariu Nyange and John Wanyange the plaintiff is not the only beneficiary of the deceased’s estate,” stated Justice Chemitei.
The court found that Mr Ng’ang’a was not a beneficiary, but a farm manager, of Nyange, which is why he agreed to receive his terminal dues of Sh26,000 given by the administrators.
The court gave the administrators 30 days to identify the 20 beneficiaries and draw up a clear list of assets left by the tycoon.
Some of the properties owned by the late Nakuru tycoon Kariu:
- Jirani farm in Njoro – two acres
- Jirani Njoro 62 acres
- Plots in Gilgil township
- Plots in Njoro
- Exotic commercial trees – Sh2 million
- Ford tractor Sh150,000
- Ford tractor Sh900,000
- Fiat tractor - Sh700,900
- Peugeot 505 - Sh400,000
- Harrow disc – Sh200,000
- Scrap metals
- Store breakdown - Sh800,000
- Cash - Sh1.9 million
- Shares at Stanbic Bank - Sh3600
- Shares Kituo services Sh445
- Sawmill band Sh1.5 million
- Njoro house goodwill – Sh1.5 million
Properties whose value is yet to be established:
- Sawmill engines
- Tractors
- Ploughs
- John Deere seed planter
- Isuzu Forward
- 540 acres in Mau Narok
- Developed plot within Nakuru town - 0.03 ha
- Running saw mill within Njoro town
- Five developed plots in Rare Kihingo, Njoro
- 2,378 shares at NIC bank
- 852,700 shares at the East African Breweries Limited
- Cash in banks BY DAILY NATION
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