Family Bank handed its founder, Titus Muya, Sh231.3 million in 2024 and 2025 as goodwill payments in recognition of his previous service as an executive and chairman of the lender.
Disclosures in the bank’s 2025 annual report for the first time gave a breakdown of the emoluments per director, revealing the payments to Mr Muya.
Ex-gratia payments to former executives are made as a gesture of goodwill -meaning that there is no obligation on a company to do so- in recognition of long service or to preserve a good relationship with the recipient.
Family Bank handed its founder, Titus Muya, Sh231.3 million in 2024 and 2025 as goodwill payments in recognition of his previous service as an executive and chairman of the lender.
Disclosures in the bank’s 2025 annual report for the first time gave a breakdown of the emoluments per director, revealing the payments to Mr Muya.
Ex-gratia payments to former executives are made as a gesture of goodwill -meaning that there is no obligation on a company to do so- in recognition of long service or to preserve a good relationship with the recipient.
The court, however, found no evidence that the estate had been mismanaged, wasted or unlawfully handled: “The prayer for an injunction to restrain the respondents from managing the properties and the prayer to appoint Ark Consultants Ltd are hereby dismissed.”
The court further directed that management of the properties should remain under Sansora Group of Companies Ltd, saying the arrangement had been authorised by Nyachae before his death and subsequently approved by a majority of the executors named in his Will.
The dispute arose after Nyachae died on February 1, 2021, leaving behind a Will dated September 9, 2015.The Will appointed Charles, Eric Maina Nyachae and Angela Nyarangi Nyachae as joint executors of the estate. The High Court issued them with a grant of probate in May 2022.
Soon after, disagreements emerged over the management of rental properties that form part of the estate.
Charles argued that Grace and Leon had illegally taken over administration of the assets and were collecting what he described as colossal rental income without authority. He further accused his co-executors, Eric and Angela, of abdicating their duties and aiding the alleged interference with estate affairs.
Through his court filings, Charles maintained that administration of the estate should rest with the executors and not with a private company.
But the respondents told the court that Sansora Group was not a stranger to the estate. They said the company had been appointed by the late Nyachae himself under a written agency agreement signed in December 2015 and had managed the properties for years before his death.
Leon told court the arrangement continued with the consent of the majority of executors. Eric and Angela also defended the arrangement, citing a clause in the Will that allows decisions to be made by a majority of executors whenever disagreements arise.
The court agreed, holding that the late Nyachae had expressly anticipated possible disagreements among executors and provided a mechanism for resolving them through majority decisions.
“To override this clause on the application of a single dissenting executor would be to defeat the testator’s clear intention,” the judge said.
The court also noted that audited statements prepared by HLB Cezam and Associates had been provided and showed the estate’s rental income was being accounted for and held in interest-earning accounts.
The ruling comes weeks after the grant relating to the estate was confirmed on June 2, 2026, a development the court said effectively overtook some of the complaints raised in the application. The court held that executors had already met their accountability obligations and should proceed with distribution of the estate.
“Overall, this application stands as dismissed,” the judge ruled.
The decision marks a significant step toward winding up one of the most prominent succession cases and distributing the assets and business empire the politician built over decades.