alma wrote:I stand corrected, but this Ojode family is the reason why certain traditions should be banned for the sake of the nation.
We can't continue talking about wife inheritance in this day. Neither can we start talking of people who are supposed to be men forcing a widow to give them some money.
Even if that kid is not his, so what? Kama the family had issues with the widow kutoka kitambo, waseme. But hiding behind fake traditions is silly and to be honest, childish.
Let me coLLect you @alma. Where do you get the information that someone wants to inherit the widow?
So far the information we have is that the brothers to the late Ojode do not want any payments made to anybody until his estate is settled. The Luos have a documented history of unfairly taking virtually everything from the widow on the death of their 'brothers' but that should not be used to pre-judge this case. Maybe that is where this is heading but so far we have no facts to support that position.
For your information the law is very clear on who the dependants are. It might not appeal to you but it does not really matter whether you are a grown up brother or not. The law says that if you are a dependant you are entitled to be a beneficiary. Now once probate is concluded the court may award you a nominal amount like say Kshs. 1 but you have a legal right to claim to the estate.
Law of Succession Act Section 29 wrote:For the purposes of this Part, "dependant" means -
(a) the wife or wives, or former wife or wives, and the children of the deceased whether or not maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death;
(b) such of the deceased's parents, step-parents, grand-parents, grandchildren, step-children, children whom the deceased had taken into his family as his own, brothers and sisters, and half-brothers and half-sisters, as were being maintained by the deceased immediately prior to his death; and
(c) where the deceased was a woman, her husband if he was being maintained by her immediately prior to the date of her death.
Try and differentiate between money belonging to the estate of Ojode and money belonging to the widow (the latter under which the insurance money might fall).
Now right now we do not know what is going on among the beneficiaries. Maybe the widow is cutting off everybody else. The mother, the brothers (if at all they were dependants), children born out of wedlock and or other wives. Maybe it is the other dependants making life hard for the widow.
My reading of the letter is that it is asking for probate before any of the late Ojode's assets are paid out.
FYI the issue of debts, mortgages etc are to be sorted out in the probate and the more reason why no payments out to be made out of the estate of Ojode until then.
As stated about the insurance payment may actually not belong to the estate to but to a designated individual (the widow) and if the terms of the policy are clear on that then the letter is misplaced.
He who can express in words the ardour of his love, has but little love to express. - Petrach, Son. (That men by various ways arrive at the same end. - Montaigne, The Essays of.)