The fight for control of the multi-million estate of former Nakuru mayor Joseck Thuo has taken a new twist, with a woman claiming to be his daughter seeking a share.
Marion Wangui, through her lawyer Owino Oenga, wants the High Court in Nakuru to stay proceedings in an ongoing succession case pending the hearing and determination of her appeal.
The court, she said, should order her inclusion as a beneficiary in the distribution of the estate.
Wangui claims the former mayor used to take care of her as she was his dependent. She adds that other family members knew of her existence. Wangui, in the court papers, said she visited the late mayor just a week before his death, as they were very close.
“That my father maintained a relationship with my mother and me, he provided for me, and I know his dying wish would still be to provide for me,” stated Wangui.
The former mayor, she said, assisted her mother in securing employment at the Nakuru Municipal Council Department of Social Services, where she worked until her retirement in 2020.
In 2019, the mayor, she said, helped her mother construct a home in Bahati, Nakuru County, where she relocated after her retirement.
To support her, Wangui said, Thuo further set up a small eatery business for her in the Freehold area. She said she is shocked that her name is not part of a contested will filed in court and claimed to have been left by the former mayor.
“I am well aware that my late father left a will whose authenticity is in doubt and is being contested by my siblings and other members of the family in court. I am aware that the will before the court does not reasonably provide for me, and I have been left out of these proceedings,” she added.
The will, in its current state, she said, has completely ignored her existence. “I know for a fact my father held me close to his heart, as he even named me Marion after his late mother,” she stated.
She said she is shocked that, despite being a dependent of her late father, her siblings and other family members have even failed to apprise her of the court proceedings underway.
“For the avoidance of doubt, I am willing to undergo a kinship DNA test, and this court can direct that a relevant sample be taken from a family member to aid in the process,” she stated.
The former mayor, Joseck Thuo, died on December 27, 2021, leaving behind two widows and five children.
Following Thuo’s death, Harrison Ngeta and Nahashon Kabiri, in August 2022, initiated a petition to the High Court in Nakuru seeking probate of Thuo’s will. They claimed that the presented will was the original document.
Ngeta and Kabiri, in their response, have dismissed Wangui’s claims. They said she has no claim whatsoever in respect of the estate.
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“Her application is therefore not only incompetent and mistaken in law; she is serving nefarious interests,” they stated in their response.
They asserted that they were the executors named in the will and that the late mayor was their uncle. Susan Wanjiru Thuo, her son Nixon Thuo, and her daughter Judy Mukami Thuo objected to the petition by Ngeta and Kabiri.
Wanjiru, Nixon, and Mukami have since disputed the legitimacy of the will and want it subjected to forensic investigations.
