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Fight for Equity tycoon’s wealth shifts to DNA test

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The late John Mwangi Kagema. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The court battle for a share of reclusive billionaire John Mwangi Kagema’s wealth has shifted to his DNA, with two of his widows pushing for exhumation of his body to confirm the paternity of five children.

Kagema, the founding chief executive of Equity Bank, died in December last year and left behind a multi-billion shilling empire that includes at least 118 plots of land across the country, shares in 21 companies and the luxury Enashipai Resort and Spa in Naivasha.

His widow, Beatrice Wanjiku, has contested the paternity of five children from Serah Wanjiru, Esther Njeri and Leah Wanjiku Gichaga who all claim to have been married to the tycoon. The three claim to have been sidelined in the sharing of Mr Kangema’s business empire after Ms Wanjiku and her children filed a succession case at the High Court in Nairobi to kick-start the process of being named administrators of the estate.

However, the battle has now shifted to the DNA tests in a suit that could lead to Kagema’s exhumation to verify the paternity of the five children — two from Ms Wanjiru, two from Ms Gichaga and Ms Njeri’s child. Ms Wanjiru and Ms Gichaga want fresh DNA samples from Kagema’s body, arguing that samples that were retrieved ahead of his burial were questionable.

“We are not agreeable to the proposal given in the draft. We are all agreeable that DNA should be done and the five subjects (children in question) be tested. The samples were harvested in the exclusion of the first objector (Serah) despite her pleas to be allowed to take part. We are not sure of the circumstances and how they were harvested,” Ms Wanjiru told the court through her lawyer, George Maina.

“Our application would be for fresh samples to be harvested, with dignity it deserves, and all parties participating. The body is buried somewhere in Ol Kalou,” Mr Maina said, adding that Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) should conduct the tests.

But lawyer Judy Thongori for Ms Wanjiku said exhumation was “a difficult path” because there were other easier and faster scientific methods of confirming paternity.

Yesterday, Justice Achode directed Mr Kimani to file a formal application seeking the exhumation of the body.

Ms Wanjiru argues in court papers that she married Mr Kagema under Kikuyu customary laws — a marriage that was instituted by a ceremony in Kabete, Kiambu County, in January 2007.

To buttress her marriage claim, she has attached an affidavit Mr Kagema swore to that effect in April 2018, eight months before he died aged 73 due to what was termed in death announcements as “a long fight with ill-health”.

Ms Wanjiru says her marriage was blessed with twins — a boy and a girl born on Valentine’s Day 2008. She has provided birth certificates in her court filings in which Kagema is listed as the father.

Despite this, Ms Wanjiru argues that she was omitted from the succession proceedings.

He was among a host of then anchor shareholders at Equity who sold off part of their stake from 2008 upon expiry of a two-year-lock-in period following the bank’s listing on the Nairobi Securities Exchange in 2006.

Kagema, who was the fourth largest shareholder with a 6.29 percent stake in Equity, gradually cut his stake down following the expiry of the golden handcuffs period in 2008, selling shares worth billions of shillings.

He joined the then Equity Building Society in 1986 which, together with current Chief Executive James Mwangi who joined as finance director in 1993, transformed it into a commercial bank.