a case of Marriage, death and inheritance

Mishale

Elder Lister
Mombasa Mother Turns Against Her Kids Over Sh600 Million
  • By Derrick Okubasu on 3 November 2020 - 9:59 am

    Entrance into Mombasa law courts

    Entrance into Mombasa law courts.
    Twitter
A Mombasa mother has filed an appeal against her children in a Ksh600 million property dispute.
A report by The Standard on Tuesday, November 3, indicated that Katharina Welele moved to court to stop a planned distribution of the estate to her children.

A court had ruled in December 2017 that the property be distributed to her son, Julius Mndwariga, daughter, Veronica Kalamba, and stepson, John Ighacho.
In the ruling, which had upheld a will by the tycoon, Gasper Welele, allocated a monthly stipend to the widow of Ksh10,000.

Mombasa Widow Katharina Welele (centers) with colleagues at Mombasa Law Courts

Mombasa Widow Katharina Welele (centers) with colleagues at Mombasa Law Courts.
The Standard

Katharina argued that she had helped her deceased husband acquire the wealth and wanted clarity on whether she could lose the property.
Her argument at the time was that the will was forged but the court ruled that she could not provide evidence of her assertions.


The stepson told the court that before his father was flown to India, he told them that the will was with the family lawyer.
“While I appreciate the pain of the objector (Katharina), I find that nothing has been placed before me that would lead me to the conclusion that the deceased did not make and sign the will produced in court.

"Ighacho, a son of the deceased and stepson of the objector and one of the executors stated that when the deceased went to India for treatment, the family saw him off at the airport and he told them that if anything happened to him, his will was with his lawyer Mohamed Khatib," ruled the judge.

The tycoon and his family owned a number of properties in Kwa Hola, Utange and Bokole areas of Majengo located in Mombasa. One of the properties was a three-story building.
In Nairobi, the family owns a flat in Nyayo Estate.

The widow had also argued that her husband had used money from their joint account to buy shares in several companies.




what would make you as a husband, write a will giving your wife of many years just 10k per month out of an estate worth 600million?
is it she was cheating, he knew and decided to punish her after his death? (the two kids maybe aren't his, so he got the other kid from another relationship and also decided to punish her further through the will)

women and kids, what would you do if this happened. would you share your inheritance with your mother? would you take your kids to court?
 

Mishale

Elder Lister
Don't judge. There is a reason he made such a decision. Awarding the kids and not their mother is not a small matter.
exactly. must be a very important decision He made.
maybe he saw it better for the kids to get the chunk of it and share with the mother if they so please rather than leaving everything or most of it with the mother/wife, and she splits with the kids.
 

Doc oga

Elder Lister
Huyo mama ni ujinga inamsumbua, si 10k is enough for her plus the kids will definitely support her. those women holding her hands are the devils influencing her negatively.
 

Tiiga Waana

Elder Lister
Mombasa Mother Turns Against Her Kids Over Sh600 Million
  • By Derrick Okubasu on 3 November 2020 - 9:59 am

    Entrance into Mombasa law courts

    Entrance into Mombasa law courts.
    Twitter
A Mombasa mother has filed an appeal against her children in a Ksh600 million property dispute.
A report by The Standard on Tuesday, November 3, indicated that Katharina Welele moved to court to stop a planned distribution of the estate to her children.

A court had ruled in December 2017 that the property be distributed to her son, Julius Mndwariga, daughter, Veronica Kalamba, and stepson, John Ighacho.
In the ruling, which had upheld a will by the tycoon, Gasper Welele, allocated a monthly stipend to the widow of Ksh10,000.

Mombasa Widow Katharina Welele (centers) with colleagues at Mombasa Law Courts

Mombasa Widow Katharina Welele (centers) with colleagues at Mombasa Law Courts.
The Standard

Katharina argued that she had helped her deceased husband acquire the wealth and wanted clarity on whether she could lose the property.
Her argument at the time was that the will was forged but the court ruled that she could not provide evidence of her assertions.


The stepson told the court that before his father was flown to India, he told them that the will was with the family lawyer.
“While I appreciate the pain of the objector (Katharina), I find that nothing has been placed before me that would lead me to the conclusion that the deceased did not make and sign the will produced in court.

"Ighacho, a son of the deceased and stepson of the objector and one of the executors stated that when the deceased went to India for treatment, the family saw him off at the airport and he told them that if anything happened to him, his will was with his lawyer Mohamed Khatib," ruled the judge.

The tycoon and his family owned a number of properties in Kwa Hola, Utange and Bokole areas of Majengo located in Mombasa. One of the properties was a three-story building.
In Nairobi, the family owns a flat in Nyayo Estate.

The widow had also argued that her husband had used money from their joint account to buy shares in several companies.




what would make you as a husband, write a will giving your wife of many years just 10k per month out of an estate worth 600million?
is it she was cheating, he knew and decided to punish her after his death? (the two kids maybe aren't his, so he got the other kid from another relationship and also decided to punish her further through the will)

women and kids, what would you do if this happened. would you share your inheritance

Wadau,

A good starting point is to understand the fact that our Court system is adversarial. This ensures that you can haul to Court anyone (however related )if they are interfering with your rights and the court will treat you both as rivals scrambling over a limited resource and make a fair determination.



Secondly, in this scenario the Court will want to know whether the husband made the will in consultation with the wife, which would almost make it a lLiving Trust and which is very hard to challenge. If not, was the will made out of malice to disadvantage the wife?



I should also like to highlight the fact that in most Common Law jurisdictions, it is becoming increasingly accepted that where a wife and husband own assets, upon dissolution of marriage the property is shared commensurate to their contributions. If the husband was the one earning and the woman was just a housewife you wouldn’t expect them to share it equally. The Court would have to compute a fair and equitable portion for the wife but without unduly prejudicing the husband who would get the lion’s share. And before you say it, yes, this is an inheritance case but same facts could apply here.
with your mother? would you take your kids to court?
 
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