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Broke, alcoholic, deadbeat: Collins Moi demanding share of Sh300 billion inheritance

President’s troubled, jobless grandson has pending rent arrears besides a Sh1 million child upkeep stipend

A quiver full of arrows: Collins Moi is demanding a piece of his grandpa, the late President Daniel arap Moi, who left a Sh300 billion fortune-now the subject of Succession case at the Milimani Court under family lawyer, Jacky Janmohammed. Collins has since sued Jacky demanding disclosure of assets including 1000-acres which he says is up for sale in Narok County.

By GW Ngari

Editor-at-Large

Collins Moi, the jobless, alcoholic grandson of the late President Daniel arap Moi has gone to court seeking a piece of his inheritance from his guka’s Sh300 billion estate-from which he laments of being disinherited. His grandpa’s properties, Collins says in court papers, are spread in England, Australia and Malawi-where the family has a tobacco plantation.

Collins has sued Moi family lawyer Jacky Janmohammed-who he says has charged Sh50 million as legal fees- for not only excluding him from the will, but also for disposing properties without involving other beneficiaries, except his uncle, former Baringo Senator Gideon Moi.

Indeed, since President Moi died in February 2020, the family has been liquidating assets properties: Siginon Group for instance, offloaded a 51 percent stake in Siginon Aviation for Sh1.7 billion last November. Collins has been following the money trail but is lost on how that dough will feather his empty pockets. The Mois also surrendered their majority stake in Transnational bank to Access Bank of Nigeria for Sh1.4 billion. Siginon Aviation and Transnational bank were just part of President Moi’s vast business empire built when he was Kenya’s dictator for 24 years.

The broom of his interests sweep across real estate, property, large-scale agriculture, logistics, education, hospitality, horticulture, finance, aviation, manufacturing, media, agri-business, warehousing, security and construction besides hard, cold cash in local and offshore accounts.

On the other hand, Collins, ever butt broke, has been sued and has been hard pressed to meet the Sh1 million in monthly upkeep for two children from his estranged wife, aspiring MCA Glady Jeruto.

Collins is familiar with courts having been arraigned over theft of his daughter’s phone six years ago. Matters were settled out of court. He was in the news again for dating and dumping the daughter of the late loaded wine maker, Fai Amario in a Kericho hotel before skiving with the Sh100, 000 bill.

What was Marsha Amario’s six day 30th birthday in bed treat, came to grief in a police station that January 2019 and when reached on phone our Romeo hissed “I am now in Kabarak.”

It can be tough when you’re always broke, yet your grandfather was a President

Amario’s cherry: Marsha Amario, daughter of wealthy wine maker Fai Amario dated Collins Moi in a love affair that went south two years later. But red flags had started flickering when Collins once brought her chips mwitu and ‘a small soda’ for lunch and a bottle of whisky for himself. Questions led to assault “I was bleeding since he beat me on a spot I had been operated on. I suffered internal bleeding and blood was also oozing out of my ears,” she later recalled.

Collins and Jeruto separated in 2012, but five years later, he checked into the Karen Hospital for alcoholism and met his future lover, an epileptic Marsha Amario who was in for mental counseling. Marsha later regretted: “I will either be abnormal, cursed or stupid to continue loving this man…this man ruined my life.”

Just what happened to Collins Moi, I mean, his maternal grandpa was a pastor, his paternal one Kenya’s second president and a staunch Christian? Or is the larger Moi family’s long running bad blood, conflict and favouritism to blame for how he turned out?

See, of his eight children, President Moi did not hide his soft spot for just two; Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, the last born son, and adopted daughter June Moi-both of whom controlled the bulk of his Sh300 billion wealth alongside former aide Joshua Kulei as business proxy. The rest he said, had disappointed him big time.

Collins Moi should have been the one leading the funeral procession of his father, not his sister Barbara

Not my brother’s keeper: Barbara Toroitich, Collins sister during the funeral of their father, Jonathan Toroitich, the former rally driver and businessman who died in 2019. Traditionally, Collins should have been the one leading the procession alongside aunt Doris Moi (left) and mother Sylvia Toroitich (right), not his sister. The Moi family was peppered with favouritism with Jonathan as the first victim who took the most knocks.
After siding with his mother, the late Lena during her divorce with Moi n 1974, the father ignored his eldest child materially and he grew up in Eldama Ravine with his mother, not State House Nairobi. He also attended Nairobi School, not St Mary’s like siblings Gideon and Philip Moi. Did how his father was sidelined affect Collins Moi?

Never mind June Moi had to learn the ropes of business under the tutelage of loaded recluse, Mike Maina, of Pelican Engineering and Marble Arch Hotel. Moi had then handed June the reins of the 4000-acre Kiptagich Tea Estate and factory in Nakuru County and the Moi Educational Centre and Sunshine Secondary in Nairobi, much to the bile of other siblings.

Is it that Collins is burdened by the Moi name? It can be tough, really, when you’re always broke, yet your guka was a President with interests sweeping across banking, logistics, warehousing, large-scale agriculture, hospitality, property, real estate, media, technology, aviation, education, horticulture, construction, security and real estate management.

John Mark Moi did not clear his law degree from Harvard and years later did not feature at Moi’s funeral

Rungu ya Nyayo: The late President Daniel arap Moi with sons (from left), puffy cheeked Gideon, petulant Philip and the late Jonathan. Like their father, the Moi children did not have stable marriages either: Doris Moi married farm manager Ibrahim Choge, who was also Jonathan’s co-driver much to the chagrin of her dad. Philip Moi secretly wed an Italian woman whom Moi disapproved and who has taken Philip to court over child support and maintenance charges running into hundreds of millions. June Moi never married, no kids.
Away from family, Moi was grinding his teeth at how the sons were performing. Philip was dealing with shady Italians in Malindi Moi had to personally direct that he be denied government tenders. Raymond Moi was running down companies including KCC where his father was one of the biggest suppliers of milk. John Mark did not clear his law degree from Harvard and years later did not feature during Moi’s funeral in February last year. That left Gideon as the blue eyed boy in the family. Did all these family dramas affect how Moi’s grand children turned out?

Money aside, Moi, a patriarchal Kalenjin of the blood was disappointed with Jonathan for siding with his mother which was how, unlike his other siblings, he did not grow up in Kabarak Nakuru, Kabarnet Gardens Nairobi or State House.

This explains why Jonathan, who died at 62 in April 2019 at Mediheal Hospital in Nakuru County-not at a top facility as the son of a former president- had a distinct North Rift accent and not a Doktari twang like his brother Gideon. Jonathan was buried at his Kabimoi farm, not Kabarak where his father lived.

Sharing the spoils: Collins’s mother, Sylvia Toroitich (above) , divorced his father in 2004 over extra-marital affairs. He married two other wives with Collins as one of 12 children. Did that worsen the situation on how Collins turned out?
Collins could be waiting for the spoils of his father’s estate worth a modest Sh30 million according to Sylvia. He filed court papers to be a beneficiary of the estate, half of which is a Sh15 million parcel of land in Nairobi’s Industrial Area, Sh10 million as shares in Taro Holdings and Sh5 million in Nakuru Oil Mills.

Could it be that growing outside the trappings of power and the creature comforts of President’s wealth and influence, affected Collins Moi?

When he met Marsha Amario in 2017, Collins too- had been separated since 2012 from his wife, Gladys Jeruto, the mother of his two children, a boy and a girl. Marsha, on the other hand, was the daughter of eccentric Naivasha wine maker, the wealthy Fai Amario who gave Kenya drinks like Amario’s Sherry and Pooler.

Shortly, Collins moved into her Lavington apartment.  She soon noticed she was the one footing the rent besides defaulting on the soft loans she advanced him.

Staggered genetics: Marsha Amario is the daughter of the late wine maker Fai Amario (centre). Collins Moi showed interest in her when she was allegedly facing rejection from her family. Marsha was swept off her feet more so after Collins began giving tutorials on how to manage her epilepsy. He also “used to call me his ‘wife’ and he even visited our Naivasha home to meet my stepmother,” she recalled at the time, unaware of the tears which awaited her two years into the affair.

That is the Collins now being sued for Sh1 million a month for being a deadbeat dad. Ex-wife, Jeruto, who unsuccessfully contested the Koitabek MCA seat in 2017,  is seeking the dough for food, rent, education and entertainment as Collins blocked her number yet ‘he’s a man of means.’

But he had very little on him when he took Marsha Amario to the Skynest hotel to celebrate her 30th birthday as part of New Year celebrations on December 29, 2018. It ended in tears. Collins blew Sh100, 000 on her but sneaked out to what he later said was his grandfather’s Kabarak farm in Nakuru County without paying. Marsha was whisked to Kitale Police station from where she called Collins who never showed or sent the quid.

“I think I withstood all this because I have been rejected by my family. I was afraid of being alone so I took all the abuse,” argued Marsha adding that at the police station she mingled with bank robbers, murderers and thieves yet her only crime was ‘loving the wrong person.’  

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