Belgian widow's Sh100m estate to be administered by a public trustee

She disappeared into thin air four years ago and her whereabouts are still unknown.

Ms Dysselleer Mireille Lesoipa, a widow of Belgian origin went missing from her palatial home in Nakuru County in July 2018, leaving behind colossal wealth amounting to over Sh100 million.

The wealth and her disappearance have sparked legal battles spanning two jurisdictions – Nakuru and Nairobi.

At the centre of both cases is Nakuru-based lawyer Harry Gakinya, who was allegedly hired by Ms Mireille for legal services.

In the case pending in the Nakuru High Court, Mr Gakinya wants to be allowed to execute a will purportedly drafted by Ms Mireille, who, he claims, succumbed to illness.

The purported will shows that the widow appointed Mr Gakinya executor and listed him and his sister Lucy Waithera among the beneficiaries of her estate.

But in another case pending in the High Court in Nairobi, Mr Gakinya is charged alongside Ms Waithera with the murder of Ms Mireille in a scheme to inherit her property.

In that case, the police claim the lawyer had conspired with his sister to eliminate the 63-year-old woman over her property through fraud and forgery.

Detectives say the lawyer forged the will that he used to petition for letters of administration in the Nakuru High Court, claims that the lawyer has denied.

Mr Gakinya, who says he is innocent, insists that the documents are genuine and he should be allowed to perform his constitutional mandate of executing it.

Through his lawyer, Joseph Karanja Mbugua, Mr Gakinya has challenged the police to produce an alternative death certificate to prove Ms Mireille’s death and show how he committed the offence.

With the two cases having a bearing on each other, Justice Teresia Matheka, who is handling the succession matter in Nakuru, must keep an eye on the proceedings in the criminal court in Nairobi.

For this reason, Justice Matheka has appointed a public trustee to administer Ms Mireille’s estate pending the hearing and determination of the matter.

When the Nakuru case was mentioned on Monday, the court confirmed the grant of probate issued to the public trustee.

Justice Matheka also directed the petitioner's lawyer to engage with the public trustee over management of the estate pending the hearing and determination of the matter.

“The court confirms that the grant of probate was issued to the public trustee in accordance with section 7 of the Public Trustee Act,” ruled Justice Matheka.

Mr Gakinya’s lawyer says his client is the genuine executor of the will and will assume his role once the matter in Nairobi is determined.

Ms Mireille migrated to Kenya in 1993 after marrying Samburu dancer Emmanuel Lesoipa, then 21, whom she met and fell in love with on the Kenyan Coast.

The marriage hit the rocks after a few years, culminating in a divorce in 2003. Mr Lesoipa died in 2017.

The couple, who lived in Lonkoben village, owned parcels of land and commercial buildings across Samburu County and thousands of cattle.

Ms Mireille had moved to Nakuru before her disappearance in 2018.

Mr Gakinya filed the succession matter in 2019, claiming that Ms Mireille had succumbed to HIV/AIDS on July 7 at MP Shah Hospital.

The matter will be mentioned on November 7 to confirm the status of the criminal case in Nairobi.

[email protected]