[2013] KEHC 3960 (KLR)

Parties

Procedural Posture

Succession Cause / Ruling on Application for Removal and Substitution of Administrator, and Variation of Distribution

Legal Issues

1. 1 Whether the grant of letters of administration became inoperative and useless upon the death of one of the two administrators.
2. 2 Whether the court should remove the deceased administrator's name and substitute another, or revoke the grant.
3. 3 Whether the distribution ordered on 24th February 1998 should be varied and the certificate of confirmation rectified.

Ratio Decidendi

The court held that the grant of letters of administration issued on 30th September 1996 to Patrick Kinyua Mwaniki and Nancy Wangu Mwaniki became inoperative and useless upon the death of Nancy Wangu Mwaniki. The surviving administrator could not act alone, and the grant was thus liable to revocation under Section 76 of the Law of Succession Act. The applicant's request to simply remove and substitute the deceased administrator's name was procedurally incorrect. The court exercised its jurisdiction to revoke the grant on its own motion. The court further found that the application to vary the distribution and rectify the certificate of confirmation could not be granted because the...

Court Disposition

Grant revoked; new administrators appointed; certificate of confirmation cancelled; fresh application for confirmation required.

Orders

• The grant of letters of administration intestate issued on 30th September 1996 is revoked.
• Patrick Kinyua Mwaniki and David Maina Mwaniki are appointed administrators of the estate of Mwaniki Gichumu.