A Will allegedly written by the late Tanzania’s billionaire Reginald Mengi will no longer be considered legitimate.
The High Court in Tanzania on May 18, 2021, quashed the Will on grounds that had failed to meet the legal requirements of a valid document.
The court went on to make Mengi’s sons Abdiel Reginald Mengi and Benjamin Abraham Mengi who had filed an objection challenging validity of the Will on six grounds.
Four people one of them being Mengi’s relative had also filed a lawsuit asking to be nominated as administrators of the expansive estate.
These were identified as Benson Benjamin Mengi, William Onesmo Mushi, Zoebu Hassuji and Sylvia Novatus Mushi whose request the court declined.
Mengi’s children, among other objections, argued that the Will was not sealed, and that the signature on the Will was different from the one their father normally used. They also said that no relative or wife of the tycoon was present when the will was signed.
They also claimed that their dad had no capacity to draw the purported Will since he had been unwell since 2016.
Also, they argued that they Will had disinherited his children without regard to Chagga traditions.
The will bequeathed Mengi’s estate to his new spouse Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe Mengi and his twin children.
Ntuyabaliwe unsuccessfully tried to be be enjoined in the case.
The Tanzanian High Court has now declared the Will invalid citing the fact that it deprived the petitioners of their inheritance, and that the assets of the tycoon’s first wife were included in the property.