Blow to woman claiming she was married to Enashipai owner

John Mwangi Kagema, the tycoon who mentored several business executives while amassing an enviable fortune of his own, will not be exhumed to settle a succession dispute in which a woman has claimed to be his wife.

High Court Judge Lydia Achode has dismissed an application by Ms Serah Wanjiru, who claims to have married the founding Equity Bank CEO, which sought to exhume Mr Kagema’s remains for purposes of collecting samples to be used in DNA tests.

Ms Wanjiru claims to have married Mr Kagema in 2007 and sired two children with the billionaire. She wanted samples to be taken from Mr Kagema’s remains so that the paternity of her two children can be ascertained.

She also claimed to have lived with Mr Kagema until November, 2018.

Justice Achode has given Ms Wanjiru two options – use samples collected from the tycoon’s body before burial, or collect fresh ones from Mr Kagema’s legitimate children and compare them to her children.

“I have refused to exhume this man, let him rest in peace,” Justice Achode said.

At the time of his death on Boxing Day, 2018, many knew Mr Kagema to be monogamous. With Ms Beatrice Wanjiku, he had six children. The couple married on January 27, 1972.

Mr Kagema was 73, and his family said that the tycoon had suffered a long illness.

Tycoon’s succession battle

But before his burial, Ms Wanjiru came out, claiming to have married Mr Kagema in 2007, eventually presenting an affidavit allegedly signed by the tycoon eight months before his death.

In 2019, Ms Wanjiku filed an application at the High Court through Judy Thongori & Company Advocates seeking authority to manage Mr Kagema’s estate.

Ms Wanjiru opposed the application and requested exhumation orders to determine the paternity of her children. She filed the 2018 affidavit allegedly signed by Mr Kagema as evidence.

The tycoon’s succession battle has also attracted two other women – Ms Leah Gechaga and Ms Esther Njeri – who claim to have been married to him too.

Through Agimba & Associates Advocates, Ms Njeri says that she married Mr Kagema in 1982.

“We met around 1982 and started living as man and wife. I lived with Mr Kagema … in South B estate from 1987 to 1989, Buru Buru from November 1989 to 2005 and Upper Hill from 2005 until his admission to hospital in 2018,” Ms Njeri said.

Ms Njeri claimed that her son Abraham Mwangi, 29, is the eldest of Mr Kagema’s children.

The court battle is expected to reveal where at least 120 parcels of land that the billionaire owned are located. He also left behind 19 vehicles.

Billionaire’s vast empire

Ms Wanjiru had asked the court to opt for exhumation, arguing that she does not trust the samples taken before Mr Kagema’s death. She also objected to the use of samples from Mr Kagema’s children with Ms Wanjiku.

A comparison of DNA from Mr Kagema’s children, regardless of their mothers, would show that they are related, hence Justice Achode’s decision to decline the exhumation.

Ms Wanjiru hinted that the DNA would not match with those of Ms Wanjiku’s children in the event that the latter were not Mr Kagema’s biological children.

“In our culture, we say that a man does not pronounce that these are my children. It is their mother and her sisters who know who the father is,” Ms Wanjiru’s lawyer George Kimani said.

Ms Wanjiru added that it is difficult to ascertain the integrity of the laboratory where Mr Kagema’s DNA samples are being held.

She has also contested Ms Wanjiku’s marriage certificate, claiming that the document is a forgery.

In his lifetime, Mr Kagema doubled up as a banker and a businessman.

The most visible brand of the billionaire’s vast empire was the Enashipai Resort and Spa in Naivasha. Kenyan nationals have to part with Sh19,500 for a night’s stay at the luxurious establishment’s most modest of rooms.

The least costly room for foreigners goes for Sh38,885 a night.

Investment portfolio

Mr Kagema was one of the largest individual shareholders of Equity Bank, an institution whose growth he spearheaded while serving as its first chief executive.

He joined Equity Building Society, which would become Equity Bank, in 1986, and stuck by the founder, Mr Peter Munga.

With Mr Munga, and later, the current CEO James Mwangi, Equity grew into one of East Africa’s biggest banks.

Mr Kagema had mastered the art of dancing to many songs at the same time, if his investment portfolio is anything to go by.

He had a significant stake in Strategic Mobile Ltd, Manyatta Ltd, KenGen, Resolution Health, Mantex Ltd, Happy Den Motel, Sundowner Park Ltd, Joheson Kenya Ltd, Fone Solutions, Mt Kenya Golf Resort Ltd, Lake Naivasha Holiday Inn Ltd, Unaitas, Safaricom and Naivasha Coffee House.

He also owned a granite mining company.

An insurance policy the business magnate had with Old Mutual is an indication that his family could get millions from the underwriter.

Several high ranking corporate and government officials heaped praise on Mr Kagema when he died, saying the tycoon had played a big role in their success.

Equity Bank honchos Mwangi and Munga, Nairobi Institute of Business and Technical Studies (Nibs) founder and chief executive Lizzie Wanyoike and former government bureaucrat Joseph Kaguthi, were among prominent individuals who said Mr Kagema was crucial to their successes.

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