The families of the late Nyeri Governor Wahome Gakuru have taken their property dispute to court after his alleged second wife expressed her disappointment at being excluded as a beneficiary in his will.
Reports from Daily Nation on Sunday, December 22, indicated that his spouse Catherine Kirumba and a woman named Wangui Mwaura, who claimed to be a co-wife sought a solution to their long-standing duel.
Mwaura was reported to have waded into the property row with claims that she had a child with the deceased and had been left out of his Ksh55 million estate.
“The applicant is seeking to protect her interest and that of her son, who is in danger of completely being disinherited from the estate. It is not in dispute the property is located in Nairobi,” her statement in court read.
Gakuru died in a tragic road accident at the Makenji area on the Nyeri-Nairobi Highway on the morning of November 7, 2017, on his way to Nairobi.
His disputed second wife’s, woes began after his death when she moved to the High Court in Nairobi to compel the deceased’s family to acknowledge her the child.
The family reportedly reached an agreement on November 17, 2017, that Mwaura’s son is included as a dependant of the deceased on condition that a DNA test to confirm the paternity of the child was conducted and his birth certificate verified.
The DNA results then turned out positive, indicating that the child was indeed Gakuru’s as alleged, but after the information was conveyed to the Kirumba’s, the former first lady allegedly failed to respond as per the earlier agreement.
She instead called for the courts to step in and solve the dispute, then reiterated her stance on Mwaura’s status as Gakuru’s second wife.
“I am a stranger to and I deny allegations of a relationship between the deceased and Mwaura. The succession case was filed in Nyeri because the deceased lived and worked in Nyeri before his demise,” she had stated.
The estate in contention comprises two prime parcels of land in Kiambu and Ngong measuring half an acre and one acre, respectively.
Other properties at the center of the dispute are three motor vehicles and shares in various companies in the country, including in a major telco company.
