Fidel Odinga’s Widow Gets Control of Multi-Million-Shilling Estate in Raila Family Property Fight

The family of ODM leader Raila Odinga has finally settled the protracted legal fight for the multi-million-shilling estate left behind by his late son Fidel Odinga, who died in 2015.

This comes after Raila’s wife Ida Odinga reached an out-of-court agreement with Fidel’s widow Lwam Getachew Bekele, who will now take full control of Fidel’s three properties including a villa in Karen Nairobi.

Business Daily reported that Bekele will also hold the rest of the estate including cash in eight bank accounts, two cars, a plot in Kisumu, and two investment companies in trust for the benefit of her underage son.

Under the agreement, Fidel’s widow cannot sell the assets and income from the properties while the money in the bank accounts can only be used for the benefit of her son, including such as paying school fees, medical, holiday expenses and clothing.

Further to this, Fidel’s brother Raila Odinga Junior was named a joint administrator of the estate together with Bekele.

Raila’s family through Ida had moved to court seeking to have twins sired out of wedlock by Fidel included as beneficiaries of the property left behind by Fidel but Bekele insisted that her son is the only heir to her deceased husband’s estate.

“The said grant was issued erroneously, as it unjustifiably locked out other interested parties from the estate of the deceased, his other children, his mother, and sister respectively. The proposed administrators cannot be entrusted alone to faithfully administer according to the law the estate of the deceased and render a true and just account of such estate,” Ida stated.

Ida also accused Bekele of concealing part of Fidel’s property, saying that her daughter-in-law omitted several properties in the inventory of her late husband’s estate. Bekele was also accused of withdrawing her son from formal education soon after Fidel passed away, and vacating their matrimonial home.

“It is not in dispute that Ms. Bekele was the legally married wife to the late Fidel (sic) but we are worried that the child Fidel left behind may not be adequately provided for,” Ida said in court papers.

 “Ms. Bekele has deliberately failed to include and provide or otherwise show an intention of providing for the said minors (twins), hence a red flag on her intention,” she added.

On her part, Bekele accused Ida of fueling the dispute as a result of their personal differences, adding that she co-owned the property in question with Fidel.

“The averments are preposterous, offensive and made in bad taste. Ida Odinga has the autopsy reports. I believe the statement she recorded with the Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) following Fidel’s death informs her opinions and is the genesis of our differences,” she told the court.

The fate of Phoebe Akinyi Gweno who had joined the case on grounds of having borne twins with Fidel was not disclosed in the agreement. In 2019, High Court Justice Aggrey Muchelule ordered a DNA test on the twins to ascertain paternity before the succession case proceeds.

Fidel, 41, was found dead after a night out with friends four years ago. Bekele said she found him unresponsive in the morning inside a spare bedroom at their Karen home.