Parties fight to bury body of ' Nairobi's biggest land owner' to reclaim vast estate

 By Amos Kareithi Updated Monday,

August 4th 2014

Thomas Mue Kathumba (in cap), Monicah Kyee, Agnes Nduku (centre) and Benson Nzau Mutua and another relative John Kathumba hold consultations. [PHOTO: JOE OMBUOR/STANDARD] 

NAIROBI KENYA: She was one of Nairobi’s arguably biggest land owner but died a pauper without an inch of soil to her name. When it rains it pours. And that is the predicament of a widow who died on July 4, 2014, after being detained by unknown abductors. In life, fate denied Beatrice Syokau Kathumba, 87, the joy of ever being a mother and then snatched her husband John Kathumba Mukuthi.

Then a group of conspirators went into overdrive and, for a decade, Kathumba’s land just next to Jomo Kenyatta International Airport estimated at over 1,000 acres, which Syokau was supposed to inherit, was grabbed and developed as the widow desperately sought assistance from the Ministry of Lands. And just when the grandmother thought she had seen it all, she was reportedly abducted from her house in Embakasi and held incommunicado for four years. In the interim, the ‘strangers’ obtained her power of attorney to administer her remaining estate, excluding all her relatives. At the same time, the group started collecting rent from her 40 rental rooms in Embakasi as Syokau was held in isolation in a rented house in Imara Daima. Her relations would learn of her whereabouts when it was too late. Syokau died in mysterious circumstances at Kenyatta National Hospital. But even in death, she continues to fuel controversy. Her body is being held in Machakos mortuary as her step-daughters, surrogate children, and other beneficiaries fight for the right to bury her and redeem her land in Nairobi worth billions. On the day she was to be buried, Syokau’s body was secretly removed from Kenyatta National Hospital on July 10, this year, by some people who were not even her relatives. There was a dramatic chase of the hearse which was intercepted before it arrived at Mitaboni. Pursuant to court orders sought by step-daughters Litha Kathumbi Kathumba and Amina Mbula Kathumba, the body was taken Machakos Funeral Home. A post-mortem examination her step-daughters had requested to determine what actually killed her was abandoned and KNH offered to refund the Sh3,000 which had been paid.

Syokau’s funeral arrangements were disrupted following court orders stopping the burial. Syokau’s body is still at the mortuary as the parties slug it out in court. At stake is the last of her 49.7 acres of land along Mombasa Road which is estimated to be worth over Sh3 billion. Syokau’s woes date back to the year her husband Kathumba died in 1990. Soon after she reported to the Criminal Investigations Department in Embakasi, detectives on October 12, 2006, chronicled her woes in a letter to Ardhi House, detailing how she had tried in vain to have LR. Number 7149/9 registered in her name. According to the letter addressed to the Commissioner of Lands, “when she took the documents to Lands office, she was promised the title will be issued in her name but she was given a fake title deed”. Syokau later realised that the title deed she had been given, NA/A5/04/145, on registry map number 194 for parcel number 145 measuring 48.7 hectares (120.3 acres) was fake. This title deed was dated July 20, 1997. She reported the matter to the CID and investigations were launched. The land Syokau was claiming was originally registered as LR No.7075/3 in the name of Laura Ellen Woodly in 1938. Title deed was to expire after 978 years. This is the title deed Syokau surrendered to the Land office so that it could be registered in her name. Apparently, the land registry number had changed following numerous sub-divisions. At one point, Benson Nzau Mutua says he was called at the Lands office in Nairobi after some imposters tried to sell the land. “One of the imposters had actually forged an identity card and was claiming to be me. I told them off and I do not know whether they were ever arrested," says Mutua. He claims he was given power of attorney by Syokau, who is his aunt, on August 16, 2006, and even paid for the sub-division of the land.

According to Mutua, her aunt had severed all ties with her step-daughters. “She had ‘married’ another woman Monicah Kyee. She got two sons, Thomas Mue and John Kathumba, who are now her legitimate heirs,” he says. According to Kyee, shortly before Syokau died, she was chased away from her home in Embakasi by the abductors who started collecting rent from the houses. Syokau’s step-daughters have a different story. They claim that the deceased was abducted by three men when she left Mitaboni on March 4, 2010, never to be heard of again, until they got a tip-off that she was at Kenyatta National Hospital where she died on July 4, 2014. The two, who went to court to prevent the burial of their step-mother by ‘strangers’ until the cause of her death was ascertained, say they reported her abduction to Mathunya sub-location chief on the same day she went missing. They say they had already obtained letters of administration of their father’s estate which was granted by High Court Judge HPG Waweru on July 22, 2010. Dickson Wambua Makau, one of the men they are accusing of abducting and trying to secretly bury their step-mother,� also claims that he has power of attorney. Wambua has denied abducting Syokau, saying he was acting in good faith by caring for the old woman who was neglected. He says that he was working as a clerk in a legal firm which had been retained by Syokau where he earned the trust of the granny to the extent of granting him power of attorney. As the step-daughters, adopted children and Wambua fight for the right to bury Syokau’s remains, questions still linger. According to Mutua, some strangers have already taken possession of Syokau’s rental rooms near the airport. “A man who claims to be a police officer has been collecting rent. How can all this happen?” wondered Mutua.