A bitter fallout between two children of Moi-era Cabinet minister John Joseph (JJ) Kamotho and their mother contributed to the financial distress that eventually culminated in the siblings being declared bankrupt over Sh4.83 million in legal fees.
The High Court declared Marianne Nyokabi Kamotho and David Waweru Kamotho bankrupt after they failed to settle legal fees owed to lawyer Paul Maingi Musyimi, who represented them in their long-running fight with their mother and sibling over the inheritance of the late politician’s Sh250 million estate.
Ms Nyokabi owes the lion’s share of the legal fees at Sh3,738,997, while Mr Waweru has an outstanding balance of Sh1,094,763.
Ms Nyokabi’s bankruptcy order was issued on January 30, 2026, with the court appointing the Official Receiver as trustee of her estate.
The petition against her was based on the Sh3.74 million debt and a statutory demand that she had failed to satisfy.
The siblings had been counting on proceeds from their father’s estate, including the sale of an Sh82 million Nairobi house, to help settle their debts.
But the money has not been unlocked, with a long-running feud between two factions of the Kamotho family continuing to delay distribution of the estate.
The Business Daily made several attempts to get a comment from the Kamothos on the row but was unsuccessful. Mr Waweru did not show up for an interview he had requested with the Business Daily on the matter last week.
The genesis of the family feud followed the death of the former Mathioya MP in a South African hospital on December 6, 2014.
Since then, his widow, Eunice Wambui Kamotho, and his four children have been unable to agree on how to distribute his multimillion-shilling wealth, prompting prolonged court proceedings.
Besides Mr Waweru and Ms Nyokabi, the other children are Charles Githii Kamotho and James Mwai Kamotho.
Factions soon developed within the family as the heirs jostled over the estate, which included five parcels of land in Gacharage, Murang’a; land in Kakuzi; a house at Jadenville Country Homes; and the matrimonial home in Kitisuru, Nairobi.
The late politician also held shares in Safaricom, KenGen, Britam, Barclays and Sameer Africa, as well as a bank account at Standard Bank.
Mr Waweru and Ms Nyokabi were often on one side of the dispute, while their mother and Mr Githii were on the other.
But the bitterest fight was between the daughter and her mother, with the two at one point seeking competing court orders over the Kitisuru home.
On March 20, 2025, Ms Wambui sought the eviction of her daughter from the property, arguing that it was her matrimonial home and that she had a life interest in it. She also accused Ms Nyokabi of insulting her and starting repairs on the property without her consent.
Ms Nyokabi opposed the application, describing the property as a family home in which she was entitled to live as the late Kamotho’s daughter and co-administrator of the estate.
She also told the court that she lacked an alternative home and the financial means to secure decent accommodation, saying her resources had been depleted and she had suffered financial hardship.
The court found that Ms Wambui had a right to evict her daughter but dismissed the application because she had not complied with the statutory requirement to issue a three-month eviction notice.
The legal battles have made it difficult for the family to distribute the estate, leaving some beneficiaries, including Ms Nyokabi and Mr Waweru, short of liquid assets.
The siblings nevertheless invoked their claims to their father’s estate during the bankruptcy proceedings as evidence that they could meet their debts.
One of the properties at the centre of the succession dispute was the Sh82 million Jadenville Country Homes house, whose sale was approved by the court in 2022.
The court allowed Ms Wambui to sell the property to raise money for her upkeep and medical expenses. Half of the proceeds was to be shared equally among the four children, while the other half was to go to their mother.
Mr Waweru and Ms Nyokabi had opposed the sale, arguing that their mother did not need to dispose of the property because she received substantial rental income and a government pension following their father’s service as a minister.
They also objected to what they considered piecemeal distribution of the estate, arguing that the family should wait for confirmation of the grant before dividing the wealth.
The transaction, however, has not resolved the wider succession dispute, leaving the estate—and the money that the siblings hoped would help them settle their debts—tied up in years of litigation.
The bankruptcy proceedings have therefore added another layer to a family dispute that has stretched for more than a decade, turning a fight over the distribution of a wealthy politician’s estate into a financial crisis for two of his children.
