The trustees, Julius Kiprotich Tanui and John Kipchirchir Birgen, were apprehended at Chemuswoi and Kurgung villages respectively in Nandi County following a tip-off from one of the late tycoon’s children, Alfred Murei.
Murei is said to have reported to Nandi police about the alleged forgery of a chief’s letter linked to the two trustees, which they were using as part of their evidence in the succession case pitting him against his five sisters before the High Court in Eldoret.
The estate, which is spread across Uasin Gishu and Nandi counties, is said to be valued at more than Ksh. 300 million.
The two elderly trustees were arraigned at the Eldoret Law Courts and charged jointly with fraudulently uttering a forged letter purporting it to be an introductory letter written and signed by the said chief for the purpose of the ongoing succession case in the estate of the late tycoon.
According to court documents, the duo committed the offence on September 28, 2023.
They denied the charge when they appeared before Eldoret Senior Resident Magistrate Beatrice Toroitich.
In her ruling, the magistrate directed that they deposit a bond of Ksh.100,000 or a cash bail of Ksh. 20,000 each to secure their freedom.
She set the hearing of the matter for December 1, 2026.
The late tycoon’s children are embroiled in a bitter fight over the distribution of his vast empire.
He died on July 17, 2023, at St. Luke’s Hospital in Eldoret, leaving behind a wife, Divine Chemutai Chirchir, and seven children — two sons and five daughters.
The deceased owned several acres of land under tea and maize plantation, dairy cows, commercial buildings and rental plots which are at the centre of the succession case.
The tycoon’s children have failed to agree on how to share his wealth after the emergence of a disputed Will.
His two sons, Alfred Murei and Flicky Kiprotich, have dismissed the Will as a forgery, while the sisters insist it is a genuine document authored by their father before his demise.
They have accused their sisters of using the purported Will to lock them out of the running and management of their father’s estate.
According to Alfred, the validity of the said Will, dated November 27, 2020, and purporting to have been written by the deceased, was procured through fraud and coercion.
But the tycoon’s daughters, led by Emily Chirchir, dismissed as untrue claims by their brothers that their father died without leaving behind a Will.
