At the centre of court battle are Fidel’s Sh 75 million Karen home, twins born with another woman six months after his death, and properties running into millions
By Pascal MJ Owade
Contributing Editor/Investigations
A vicious feud in the Raila Odinga family is brewing in court where it pits his wife Ida Odinga, daughter Winnie Odinga and Lwam Bekele, the Ethiopian wife of their late son Fidel Odinga.
Undercover can exclusively reveal the details of the suit papers filed in court in a case slotted for hearingthis Wednesday, October 16.
At the centre of the dispute is Fidel’s Karen home, which was valued at Sh75 million in 2015, high end cars, money in several bank accounts, shares in private companies and properties running into millions.
Of interest, are claims by Ida that besides his one son with Lwam, Fidel also had twins with another woman, Phoebe Akinyi Ogweno. The High Court has since directed that blood samples be extracted for a DNA test be carried out. Then there were allegations that Lwam was a ‘person of interest’ in the mysterious death of Fidel on January 4, 2015.
Lwam laments that she had been denied access to a joint bank account she had with Fidel and thus has been supporting their son, Allay Raila Odinga, singlehandedly as a widow.
Lwam singles out Ida recording statements at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) and naming her in relation to Fidel’s death as the root cause of their continued bile and bad blood.
The secret difference and suspicions now flying off petitions filed in court are a far cry from Fidel’s private wedding to Lwam at the Greek Orthodox church along Valley Road, Nairobi in July 2012, a year after Fidel divorced his first wife, Veronica Wanjiru.
Ida claims through lawyers Owiti, Otieno &Ragot Advocates that “even though the death of the deceased remains a mystery and efforts were made to establish what suddenly transpired, Lwam, kept off from the family. It remains unclear why she hastily ran away and kept off the family.”
Fidel’s second Range Rover is registered under Yunis Muhammed
Fidel died without a Will and Ida and Winnie Odinga have petitioned to have Lwam stopped being the administrator of Fidel’s estate which comprise their Karen home, House Number 6 at Tipuana Park and 10 other properties and seven bank accounts.
Also included are two parcels of land in Kisumu and one in Kajiado. Fidel also held 250 shares each Axum Investments Limited and Ambesa Investments, respectively besides his cars- two Range Rovers- KBS 027 Y and KCA 026 V, a Nissan Sunny KBR 301 F and a Mercedes Benz KBG 595 B.
Fidel also had three accounts at Gulf Bank – two for Kenya shillings and one for US dollars, and others at Diamond Trust Bank, Capital Centre Branch, Stanchart (Kenyatta Avenue), ABC Bank (Industrial Area Branch) and Stanbic (Chiromo Branch), where he ran a credit card.
But Lwam in her suit papers notes that the Range Rover KBY belonged to Fidel’s business partner known Hossein who repossessed it shortly after Fidel was buried in their rural Bondo farm next to his grandfather, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in January 10, 2015.
Lwam also clarifies that she was not aware Fidel owned a Mercedes.
The second Range Rover (KCA) she clarifies is registered under Yunis Muhammed and Fidel bought it in a trade-off whose balance she settled after the funeral.
Lwam laments that the joint account held at Gulf Bank has since been closed. Lwam says she was not aware Fidel had other accounts with DTB, ABC and Stanbic banks.
Lwam argues the house in Kare now belongs to her
Ida and Winnie also want to reposes Fidel’s house in Karen considering that Lwam “took off from her matrimonial home in Tipuana Park, House number six within Karen, Nairobi, soon after the deceased was laid to rest, and cut off all the communications with the family of the deceased,” argues Ida in her objection filed in court.
But Lwam argues their Karen home now belongs to her since it was co-owned with Fidel.
Lwam through her lawyers Sagana, Biriq & Company Advocates argues: “This property (Tipuana park house) was held under a joint tenancy with joint proprietors being the deceased and myself. Upon the deceased’s demise, the property automatically reverted to my ownership. It therefore does not form part of the deceased’s estate.”
She also accuses Ida of “unjustifiably and continuously making false, defamatory an/or unkind remarks about her family friends and herself.”
Ida and her daughter Winnie want the court to lock Lwam out of Fidel’s estate on grounds that he had another family with Phoebe AkinyiOgweno, with whom they had twins who were also depending on him.
But Lwam counters that the said twins were born six months after Fidel’s death and therefore he could not have been supporting them in their mother’s womb.
Lwam attached their birth certificates in her affidavit and argues “there is no indication of the father of the said minors” as the birth certificates indicate the minors were born on July 1, 2015 which is six months after Fidel’s death.”
Lwam says in her petition that Ida and Winnie had claimed in their petition for grant of letters of administration intestate, where they indicated that “the deceased supported the minors during his life time. It remains inconceivable how the deceased supported minors even before they were born.”
Lwam clarifies that she has no qualms including the said minors and their mother as beneficiaries provided there was proof that Fidel as their biological father.
I have exclusively been supporting Allay Raila Odinga without any support
In any case, she says, Ida and Winnie had in the same document acknowledged that Allay Raila Odinga was the only son Fidel had sired during his lifetime and therefore introducing twins born six months after his death was a contradiction.
Ida and Winnie also accused Lwam of hiding the son she had with Fidel but in her court papers she has attached pictures and social media posts of Raila Ida, Rosemary and Winnie spending time, including family events with their son proving as false claims she has been hiding him.
Ida and Winnie also had issues with Lwam withdrawing Allay from school, but Lwam disputes the allegation noting that her in-laws have not been supporting Allay’s education and that “contrary to the objector’s (Ida and Winnie’s) claims, the minor is currently enrolled in formal education system. I have exclusively been supporting him without any support.”
Last year, Lwam applied for grant to run Fidel’s estate which was granted on January 9, 2019 and Lwam and FahmGetachew Bekele were named co-administrators.
Ida moved to court on August 2, to challenge the grant, arguing it was issued erroneously “as it unjustifiably locked out other interested parties from the estate of the deceased, his other children, his mother and sister respectively.
“That the said petitioners have willfully and knowingly failed to properly and accurately declare all the assets and liabilities of the deceased,” Ida and Winnie say referring to the grant of probate made to Lwam and Fahm.
They argue their main interest to protect, safeguard and guarantee the well-being of all the minors sired by Fidel Odinga and that Lwam could not be trusted as the “proposed administrators of Fidel’s estate have already intermeddled with some of the properties of the deceased.”
Lwam argues that as the widow she should be granted first priority to administer his estate saying “I rank higher than the objectors in the order of consanguinity that is to be considered before issuing a grant of letters of administration intestate.”
