A legal dispute pitting the widow of former Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore against his two children over the control of his multi-million-shilling estate has been settled out of court, paving way for its distribution to the beneficiaries.
This follows an agreement between the widow, Ms Wambui Collymore and the children Mr James Robert and Ms Claire Helen, to withdraw the suit. The two children are from Collymore’s previous marriage to Claire-Bishop Collymore.
He married Ms Wambui in a private ceremony at their Kitisuru home in 2016.
In the consent agreement dated September 23, 2022, and filed before the Family Court in Milimani Nairobi, the two sides agreed to drop the court fight.
They settled the dispute at the Court Annexed Mediation, however, the contents of the agreement have not been made public.
“By mutual consent of all the disputants in this matter, all the application(s) in court concerning the matter under reference are removed by the act of signing this mediation agreement and the matter should be marked settled in the court records with effect from the date of this agreement. It is further agreed that each disputant will settle their legal costs,” the consent filed in court states.
Following the new development, the court adopted the agreement as an order of the court.
Prior to the agreement, Ms Wambui and Ms Claire-Bishop had moved to court each seeking to control the wealth valued at more than Sh200 million.
The estate includes cash, real estate, cars and shares in various companies. Collymore served as Safaricom CEO from 2010 until his death on July 1, 2019, after a long battle with cancer.
Ms Claire-Bishop wanted the court to cancel the powers given to Ms Wambui to administer Collymore’s estate on July 28, 2021.
She had accused Ms Wambui of failing to disclose and produce true records of the assets, including the bank accounts and statements.
Collymore left two wills — one in Kenya and another outside the country.
The second will has not been made public, and neither has the jurisdiction of its signing been revealed in court filings.
The Kenyan will filed in court by Ms Wambui, stated that all assets Collymore owned locally would be inherited by Wambui.
Ms Wambui had asked the court to allow her to leave out some of Mr Collymore’s properties from the court record, to avoid a lot of publicity.
The will indicated that former State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita would be appointed executor of the will should anything happen to Wambui.
Mr Waita, as appointed executor, was supposed to split Collymore’s assets into three trusts — for James (40 per cent), Sarah (40 per cent) and Wambui’s children (20 per cent).
Alternatively, he was required to hold all the assets in trust for the same beneficiaries and in the same proportion.
