BY SAM ALFAN.
Phoebe Akinyi Gweno has sought to join a case involving the widow of Fidel Odinga’s Lwam Getachew Bekelle and her mother in-law Ida Odinga.
The woman says her twins are at the centre of property dispute with former premier wife Ida seeking to control Fidel’s estate and cater for all his beneficiaries.
Akinyi through Lawyer John Swaka said she is the biological mother of the minors and she wants to join the matter to protect the interests of the minor children
It is her argument that the case is marred with ill will and malicious motives, creating a tussle with Lwam on one side and Ida and siblings on the other.
“The intended interested party (Akinyi) and her children have been left in between and owing to that she seeks for leave of court to be enjoined as an interested party to clear the air and give her position on the same,” Lawyer Swaka submitted.
Akinyi filed the affidavit just days after Justice Aggrey Muchelule of Milimani High court Family Division ordered a DNA test on the twins to determine if they are indeed the late Fidel’s children.
The order were issued following an objection by Lwam to an application filed by Raila’s wife, Ida and her daughter, Winnie, seeking for grant be the administrator of her husband’s estate.
The court heard that the late Fidel had left the widow with one child and now two minors have emerged whose paternity must be established.
Lwam through her lawyer Rogers Sagana had termed her mother-in-law’s assertions as a concoction of facts given that the said twins were born six months after Fidel’s death.
However, Bekelle said she does not have a problem accepting the minors as beneficiaries of her late husband’s estate if it is proved they are his children.
In the application filed in court Bekelle has denied the two twins saying her son is the only heir to her husband estate.
She says the objection by Ida and Winnie has been overtaken by events since it was filed outside timelines stipulated by law of succession.
The grant of letters of administration of the estate was already issued on January 9, 2019.
Bekelle says in affidavit filed by Ida the birth certificates of the twins does not indicate the father of the minors thus does not prove the paternity of the minors.
She says the birth certificates indicates the monies were born July 1, 2015 which is 6 months after the death of Fidel she wondered how the deceased supported the monies before they were even born.
“I have never inter-meddled with the estate of the deceased person(Fidel) either before or after being issued with the grant of letters of administration intestate,” adds Bekelle.
