Former police boss sons in court fight over Sh4bn estate

The family of former police chief Bernard Hinga is fighting over his multi-billion-shilling estate.

Anthony Hinga, the eldest son of the police chief, claims his late stepmother Isabella Muthoni-Hinga fraudulently acquired shares due to him in the family investment vehicle, Machure Coffee Estates Limited.

Mr Anthony told the court the stepmother transferred his shares — or half of Machure — to her own son, Nyoike Hinga, who now fully owns the estate.

The police chief’s cast estate includes 1,400 acres of land in Juja, 1,205 acres in Njoro popularly known as Kisima Farm and five acres of land near the Safari Park hotel.

Others are two parcels of land along Argwings Khodek Road, a quarter acre near Yaya Centre, a three bedroom flat in Upper Hill and one acre beach plot in Mombasa.

Property dealers estimate the Hinga properties to be worth nearly Sh4 billion.

Mr Anthony claims he incorporated Machure Coffee Estates together with his father in 1976 and each owned half of the investment vehicle. He says he has never disposed his shares as captured in the register of companies.

“Declaration that Mr Nyoike is holder of only 24,999 shares in the company and not 49,999 shares reflected in the register of members,” reads one of the order sought by Mr Anthony.

Mr Hinga, who died in 2006, served as Kenya’s first African police commissioner and worked throughout President Kenyatta’s 15-year rule before being replaced by president Moi when he took office in 1978.

The battle for his wealth mirrors that of former spy chief James Kanyotu, whose widows are fighting to control the previous intelligence head’s Sh15 billion estate.

The late Kanyotu, who retired in 1992, became intelligence chief in January 1965 aged 28.

Mr Anthony claims that Mr Nyoike has started selling part of the Hinga estate, arguing that 142 acres of the Juja farm has been sold to Christ is the Answer Ministries.

The church is alleged to have sub-divided the land and sold it.

The Kisima Farm in Njoro is noted in court to have been sold to the government for resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The elder Hinga says the land dealings happened without his knowledge.

“Unless restrained, the current director may continue to fraudulently and irregularly sell off the company’s assets,” he notes in the court documents.

Mr Anthony reckons that he ceded management of the Machure Coffee Estates Limited to his stepmother in 1986 due to tight work schedule.

He adds that Ms Hinga was not allocated shares in the firm until 2005 when the former police chief allocated her 24,800 and Mr Nyoike 200.

Ms Hinga, who died in 2011, is alleged to have transferred the entire 50,000 shares to Mr Nyoike when she was running the investment firm.

Mr Anthony says he learnt of the share transfer in 2012 when his uncle complained that land offered to him by the police chief had been put on sale.

This prompted a search at the lands office and that of registrar of companies, which revealed changes to shareholder structure of Machure Coffee Estates Limited.