A legal battle between former Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore's widow and his two children over control of his multi-million shilling estate has been settled out of court, paving the way for its distribution to the beneficiaries.

This comes after the widow, Ms Wambui Collymore, and her children, Mr James Robert and Ms Claire Helen, agreed to drop the suit. Collymore's two children are from his previous marriage to Claire-Bishop Collymore. In 2016, he married Ms Wambui in a private ceremony at their Kitisuru home.

The two parties agreed to drop the court fight in a consent agreement dated September 23, 2022 and filed before the Family Court in Milimani Nairobi.

They settled the dispute through Court Annexed Mediation, but the terms of the agreement were not made public.

"All applications in court concerning the matter under reference are removed by the act of signing this mediation agreement by mutual consent of all disputants in this matter, and the matter should be marked settled in the court records with effect from the date of this agreement. It is also agreed that each disputant will pay their own legal fees "According to the consent filed in court.

Sh200 million in wealth
Following the new development, the court accepted the agreement as a court order.
Prior to the agreement, Ms Wambui and Ms Claire-Bishop had gone to court, each seeking control of the more than Sh200 million in assets.

The estate includes cash, real estate, automobiles, and stock in various corporations. Collymore was the CEO of Safaricom from 2010 until his death on July 1, 2019, following a long battle with cancer.

Ms Claire-Bishop asked the court to revoke Ms Wambui's powers to administer Collymore's estate on July 28, 2021.

Ms Wambui was accused of failing to disclose and produce accurate records of the assets, including bank accounts and statements.

Collymore left two wills, one in Kenya and one outside of Kenya.

The second will has not been made public, and the jurisdiction in which it was signed has not been revealed in court filings.

Ms Wambui's Kenyan will stated that all assets Collymore owned locally would be inherited by Wambui.

Ms Wambui had asked the court to allow her to exclude some of Mr Collymore's properties from the court record in order to avoid unnecessary publicity.

If Wambui died, former State House Chief of Staff Nzioka Waita was named executor.

Mr Waita, as executor, was supposed to divide Collymore's assets into three trusts: 40% for James, 40% for Sarah, and 40% for Wambui's children (20 per cent).

Alternatively, he had to hold all of the assets in trust for the same beneficiaries and in the same proportion.