Court shields Two Rivers from Koinange family land row

The High Court has shielded Centum Investments #ticker:CTUM from the Koinange family property dispute after it ruled the land where Two Rivers Mall stands was acquired regularly.

One of the widows of late Cabinet minister Mbiyu Koinange questioned the Sh1.1 billion deal that saw Centum acquire the land for Two Rivers Mall, calling for the court to have it surveyed afresh on suspicion that the investment firms bought more than the quoted 100 acres.

Justice Aggrey Muchelule last week ruled that Centum was sold 100 acres and another international investment firm 291 acres of the 640 acres property known as Closeburn, adding that remaining 246 acres worth Sh2.88 billion is the one contested and questionable.

Some members of the Koinange family, which had for 40 years been locked in a vicious court fight over multibillion- shilling assets, questioned the size of the land sold to Centum.

Eddah Wanjiru Mbiyu, the late Cabinet minister’s widow, said a re-survey of the land sold to three parties among them Centum would help in establishing the proper acreage available for distribution. But Justice Muchelule said the remaining 246 acres should be resurveyed, arguing the Centum deal was sanctioned by the court and there is no evidence to suggest it was more than 100 acres.

“I direct the administration of the estate to measure the acreage of the estate (246 acres) using a government surveyor,” said the judge

“If the estate is found to be less than 246 acres, the beneficiaries will proportionately lose their shares. Whatever is recovered will be proportionately shared.”

Centum bought the land for Sh1.1 billion in 2010 and used the property to build the Two Rivers Mall, its subsidiary.

The High Court last Thursday brought to an end a four-decade succession case involving the Koinange family estate estimated to be more than Sh14 billion.

Justice Muchelule ruled that the properties of the powerful Kenyatta-era Cabinet minister will be distributed his 12 beneficiaries including two widows who are still alive and 10 children.

At the centre of the latest court battle was whether the assets should be distributed equally among the four widows or the allocation should be based on a list of Koinange’s spouses as well as his recognised children.

Koinange’s third and fourth widows, Margaret Njeri Mbiyu and Eddah Wanjiru Mbiyu, want the property split equally among the four widows in line with Kikuyu customary law.

However, those associated with the first and second widows, who are both deceased, wanted the assets shared among 20 dependents, including Koinange’s remaining children and grandchildren as well as his two daughters-in-law.