Estate Dispute Involving Judge’s Family

The will of Court of Appeal Judge Moijo ole Keiwua of Kenya has created conflict between his widow and one of his sons. He died from complications related to cancer this past year on October 9, 2012. He wrote his will a year earlier on September 19, 2011. According to Standard Digital, the court documents estimate that “the estate is worth about Sh30 million.” The judge apparently had two sons, one of whom, has sided with his mother in her attempts to block an application by his other son to manage the estate. 

His widow argues that the judge did not have the mental capacity when he wrote his will based upon the fact that he was critically ill at the time. The one witness to the will was also his lawyer, Stephen Mwenesi. Mr. Mwensei claims that he never would have witnessed it otherwise. His son, Moshe, claims that his mother was present when the will was created and raised no objections. This dispute arose after Moshe filed the application to manage the estate. The brother claims that his mother is only trying “to delay the distribution of the estate” by meddling with the management of the estate. His mother denies these allegations.

See Pamela Chepkemei, Judge’s Family Fights Over Sh30m Estate, Standard Digital, Feb. 24, 2013.

Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) and Jim Hillhouse (Professional Legal Marketing (PLM, Inc.)) for bringing this article to my attention.