Leaked court documents have confirmed that Raila Odinga’s family is in a protracted battle with the widow of his late son, Fidel Odinga, over the administration of his property.
The dispute has exposed intriguing details of the multi-billion empire left behind by Raila’s firstborn who died at 41.
Fidel, Raila’s heir apparent died on January 4, 2015, after a night out with friends. He left behind one son, Allay Raila Odinga.
Now, the late’s mother, Ida, and sister Winnie Odinga, listed 10 properties and seven bank accounts that they say belonged to Fidel.
The properties include Fidel’s home at Tipuana Park, House Number Six in Karen, three parcels of land; two in Kisumu and one in Kajiado, 250 shares each in both Axum Investments Limited and Ambesa Investments Limited.
Others are two Range Rovers, KBS 027Y and KCA 026V, a Nissan Sunny KBR 301F and a Mercedes Benz KBG 595B.
Ida and Winnie also listed three accounts at Gulf Bank – two for Kenya shillings and one for US dollars, another one at Diamond Trust Bank, Capital Centre Branch, Standard Charted Bank, Kenyatta Avenue, Stanbic Bank, Chiromo Branch where he ran a credit card.
A seventh account was held at ABC Bank, Industrial Area branch.
However, according to Fidel’s widow, Lwam Bekelle, the KBY Range Rover now belongs to one Hossein, Fidel’s business partner who claims the car was sold to him.
The second Range Rover KCA, she says, is registered under a Yunis Muhammed and was purchased by trading off another vehicle.
She claims she personally paid for the balance after Fidel’s death.
Lwam says the account at Gulf Bank was jointly operated between her and Fidel and has since been closed.
She denies knowledge of the accounts at DTB, ABC and Stanbic.
Lwam also claims that the Karen home was held under a joint tenancy with herself and Fidel.
“Upon the deceased’s demise, the property automatically reverted to my ownership. It, therefore, does not form part of the deceased’s estate.”
Ida has defended her move to court to block Lwam arguing that she cut communication with the Odinga’s after she fled her matrimonial home in Tipuana Park in Karen, Nairobi immediately after the deceased was buried.
She revealed that her deceased’s son had sired twins with another woman, and they(children) had not been listed as the dependants.
Fidel’s widow, who only had one child with her late husband however rubbished Ida’s claims terming them as false.
According to the widow, she fled her Karen home because her mother-in-law continuously made false and unkind remarks about her family, friends and herself.
She further argued that the said twins were born six months after Fidel’s death and their birth certificates had no indication of the father of the said minors.
Lwam however stated that she was willing to list them as the deceased’s dependants on assertation that they had indeed been sired by Fidel.
The case is set to be mentioned on Wednesday, October 16.
