You can reach us on PHONE – +254 (0)714 983066;

EMAIL – [email protected], [email protected]

OFFICE VISIT: Agip House on Haile Selassie Avenue in Nairobi’s CBD, Entrance B, First Floor, Suite 101

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Our Firm covers the following Areas in Law:

• Civil Litigation & Small Claims 
• Conveyancing & Lands 
• Corporate & Commercial 
• Criminal 
• Family 
• Industrial & Labour 
• Insurance 
• Pensions & Trusts
• Succession (Probate & Administration) 

We are a small-sized Start-up Business Law Firm with two dedicated lawyers, namely,

MR. KEVIN TURUNGA ITHAGI, the Founder and Managing Partner,

an Associate Attorney, MR. STANLEY MWANGI GATHAGA,

as well as OTHER ASSOCIATES who are all Advocates of the High Court of Kenya,

and YOUR SUPPORT TEAM, led by MS. CAROLINE REUBEN, the Office Administrator.

Mediation is a facilitative process where an impartial third party assists the parties in resolving their dispute. The mediator uses various techniques to help parties resolve the dispute. Instead of imposing a solution, a mediator helps parties come to a consensus of their own. Mediation is a non-adversarial process which can assist in rebuilding family relationships.

Estate Planning is the process of anticipating and arranging, during a person’s life, for the management and disposal of that person’s estate while the person is alive and at and after death. It could also take into account the management of an individual’s properties and financial obligations in the event that the person becomes incapacitated

There are several modes of estate planning namely:

1. Trusts
2. Wills
3. Nominations
4. Joint Ownership
5. Gifts in contemplation of death
6. Gifts inter vivos (gifts given during a per
7. Gifts inter vivos (gifts given during a person’s lifetime which do not form part of the estate of the donor)e estate of the donor)
8. Estate planning does not guarantee the absence of family feuds over inheritance but if done well, it can significantly reduce the possibility of their occurrence and preserve the estate left behind.
   

Yes, it does. When joint owners hold a property as joint tenants, the property (whether moveable or immoveable) automatically goes to the surviving owner (or owners) upon the death of one of the joint owners, regardless of the deceased joint owner’s will. Assets pass by “survivorship” in this sense.

However, regard would also be had to the mandate given to the Bank, which governs the contractual relationship between the Bank and the account holders.

Section 5 of the Law of Succession Act, (Cap. 160) Laws of Kenya (the “Act”) provides for testamentary freedom which allows every adult of sound mind to dispose of any of his/her free property as he/she pleases.

This entails the freedom to distribute his/her estate in whatever ratio and to whoever he/she wishes.

A Court can only interfere with testamentary freedom if a testator has failed to make reasonable provision for his/her dependants. Even then, the Court would not invalidate the Will, but would instead make an Order for the reasonable provision of the dependant who has been left out.

Therefore, while unequal distribution may result in a sense of unfairness, it does not invalidate a will.

Yes. A beneficiary cannot be forced to claim inheritance if they do not wish to do so. A good example of this is the case of Rita Field-Marsham, the late Hon. Nicholas Biwott’s daughter.

After Mr. Biwott’s death in 2017, Ms. Field-Marsham requested to be delisted from the list of beneficiaries to her late father’s inheritance. Ms. Field-Marsham wrote a disclaimer letter to the Court requesting to release all her rights, title and interest of the one–fourteenth share allocated to her in her father’s Will.

In such instances, the usual practice is for such beneficiary to file a deed or instrument of renunciation disclaiming such right.

Section 66 of the Act stipulates that preference is given to the following persons to administer the estate of a deceased person where the deceased dies intestate:

i) The surviving spouses or spouses, with or without association of other beneficiaries.

ii) Other beneficiaries entitled on intestacy, with priority according to their respective beneficial interests.

This means that, where the deceased is married, their spouse ranks first in priority and would be entitled to apply for letters of administration. In the order of beneficial interest provided for in the Act, subsequently the next in priority are children of the deceased. Where the deceased has no surviving spouse or children the Act provides for the following order of priority as per section 39 of the Act:

“Father; or if dead, mother; or if dead, brothers and sisters, and any child or children of deceased brothers and sisters, in equal shares; or if none, half-brothers and half-sisters and any child or children of deceased half-brothers and half-sisters, in equal shares; or if none, the relatives who are in the nearest degree of consanguinity up to and including the sixth degree, in equal shares. Failing survival by any of the persons mentioned in paragraphs (a) to (e) of subsection (1), the net intestate estate shall devolve upon the State, and be paid into the Consolidated Fund.”

As per section 56 of the Act, a minor, person of unsound mind or a bankrupt cannot be an administrator of a deceased persons estate.

A body corporate or trust corporation may be issued with Grant of Letters of Administration in accordance with section 57 of the Act.

It is important to note that when petitioning for Grant of Letters of Administration, it is important to obtain the consent of all other person who are rank in priority or are equal in rank in their entitlement to apply for the Grant.

The maximum number of Administrators is a statutorily prescribed four (4) persons. Section 56 of the Act provides that a grant of representation cannot be made to more than four (4) persons in respect of the same property.

Where property is devolving upon a minor and a continuing trust arises, section 58 of the Act provides that no Grant of Representation can be issued to a sole Administrator, there must be two (2) or more administrators in such a case.

Section 80 of the Act provided that a Grant of Letters of Administration shall only take effect from the date of such Grant.

In the case of intestacy, the power to sell, deal and dispose of the deceased property only arises once a Grant of Letters of Administration has been confirmed. Any dealing with property prior to the Confirmation of Grant would amount to intermeddling.

Section 45 provides that “Except so far as expressly authorized by this Act, or by any other written law, or by a grant of representation under this Act, no person shall, for any purpose, take possession or dispose of, or otherwise intermeddle with, any free property of a deceased person.”

It is therefore prudent to hold off dealing with any property comprising of the deceased estate without a grant of representation.

Where a Grant of Administration has been issued, it may be revoked or annulled on the application of an interested party/ beneficiary in accordance with section 76 of the Act on the following grounds:

a) The proceeding to obtain the Grant were in some way defective

b) The Grant was obtained fraudulently

c) The Grant was obtained by means of an untrue allegation of a fact which was essential

d) The person to whom the Grant was issued has failed to apply for Confirmation of Grant within one (1) year, or has failed to proceed diligently with the Administration of the Estate, or has failed to produce to the Court an inventory or account of Administration as is required by the Act.

e) The Grant has become useless and inoperative through subsequent circumstances.

According to the Matrimonial Property Act 2013, matrimonial property means either the matrimonial home, household goods and effects in the matrimonial home, any movable or immovable property jointly owned and acquired during the marriage. However, trust property, including property held in trust under customary law, does not form part of matrimonial property.

Matrimonial property vests in the spouses according to the contribution of either spouse towards its acquisition, and shall be divided between the spouses. Contribution can be either monetary or non-monetary i.e. domestic work or management of the matrimonial home, child care, companionship, management of family business or property or farm work.

Where matrimonial property is acquired during marriage:

1. In the name of one spouse, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the property is held in trust for the other spouse.
2. In the name of the spouses jointly, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that their beneficial interests in the matrimonial property are equal.