Late billionaire Reginald Mengi bequeathed all of his property to Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe alias K-Lynn in a will is now the subject to bitter court battle.
According the will that Mengi left behind when he died, K-Lynn and her twin children – Jayden Kihoza Mengi and Ryan Saashisha Mengi inherited everything the late tycoon owned leaving nothing for the children he had with his first wife Mercy Mengi.
Let’s begin from the start… Mengi had an estimated net worth of about $560 million or Ksh63 billion. He was the founder of the IPP Group, a Tanzanian conglomerate that bottles Coca-Cola and manufactures Kilimanjaro water brand in the country.
Mengi’s group is also involved in mining, real estate and manufacturing of consumer goods. The late tycoon was perhaps best known for owning one of the largest and most influential media companies in Africa.
His media group, IPP media, owned several newspapers, television and radio stations in Tanzania. In all, the IPP group employs more than 5,000 people, and is one of the largest corporate taxpayers in Tanzania.
Even in old age, Mengi was still building his businesses empire. In November 2019 his IPP Group entered into a partnership with South Korea’s Youngsan Glonet Corporation to establish a vehicle assembly plant in Dar es Salaam.
In the same month, he also partnered with Touchmate, a computer products manufacturing company based in Dubai, to establish a smartphone manufacturing plant in Tanzania.
Mengi was also one of most prominent philanthropists in his native country. He donated a lot of money to educational, medical and religious institutions in Tanzania.
The late tycoon founded the Rodney Mutie Foundation after one of his children, Rodney Mutie, died as a result of heart complications. The charity pays for dozens of Tanzanian children with complicated heart ailments to travel for surgeries in India and US.
IPP was also establishing the first Stem Cell Research and Therapy center in Tanzania, just before Mengi passed on. The tycoon died on May 2nd 2019 at the age 75 of while undergoing treatment in Dubai.
He left behind his wife K-Lynn and four children. Mengi had divorced his first wife Mercy Mengi who passed away in November 2018.
Mengi married K-Lynn in a colorful wedding held in Mauritius on March 28th 2015. They were blessed with twin sons for the four years they were married.
The death of Mengi brought a bitter conflict between his window K-Lynn and his children from his first marriage.
According the will that Mengi left behind when he died, K-Lynn and her twin children inherited everything the late tycoon owned leaving nothing for the children he had with his first wife Mercy Mengi.
Many people questioned the will since Mengi was known to be a philanthropist. Why would he deny his own children his inheritance yet he used to give total strangers millions through charity?
Mengi’s children from his first marriage were quick to file a suit in court challenging the will which bequeathed all of his property to his widow.
Investigations done by his children found out that the Miss Tanzania 2000 changed the billionaire’s will to bequeath herself and her twin sons all property owned by Mengi.
In March 2021, the High Court, Dar es Salaam, overturned Mengi’s final will after rejecting an application by four people who wanted the court to prove they were the executors of the late businessman’s estate.
Mengi’s sons Abdiel and Benjamin Mengi successfully petitioned the High Court to declare illegal the will that gave K-Lynn all of Mengi’s property.
Judge Yose Mlyambina agreed with Mengi’s children and rescinded the will that was allegedly written by their father.
Mengi’s children from his first marriage convinced High Court that their late father had lost the ability to write legitimate wills due to the health problems he was facing at the time.
The court was satisfied that there was enough evidence that the late tycoon had suffered a stroke since October 2016 and did not recover until he died in May 2019.
“This means that his ability to think and make good decisions was affected and he was unable to understand the meaning of the right decision to manage his estate,” the High Court said.
K-Lynn capitalized on Mengi deteriorating health to change the original will and came up with another will that granted her and her sons all of the property the late billionaire owned.
Following the defeat in High Court, K-Lynn moved to the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn the decision by the lower court.
The retired Bongo singer filed an appeal with the Court of Appeal, seeking to review and overturn the High Court’s decision to set aside her husband’s will.
K-Lynn wants everything for herself and her twin sons, she doesn’t want Mengi’s other children to inherit anything their late father owned.
The former beauty queen is petitioning Court of Appeal to overrule High Court and declare the will, which had handed her all the tycoon’s property, as the only legitimate will.
However, Mengi’s children from his first marriage are determined to fight back. They protested against the widow’s request at the Court of Appeal.
In one of their submissions in court, Mengi’s elder children argued that K-Lynn had no legitimacy to challenge a High Court decision by requesting a review at the Court of Appeal instead of an appeal.
They also claimed that her application was not legally valid because it did not have the necessary accompanying documents.
However, the Court of Appeals dismissed the objection, stating that since K-Lynn was not a party to the High Court case, she was eligible to file a review in the court.
The court further stated that even the shortcomings identified in K-Lynn’s application had no effect on the case she filed, thus giving permission for the case to be heard.
The Court of Appeal has already heard the arguments by Mengi’s children and their relatives and will issue a notice informing all parties of the date of the decision.
The Court of Appeal is the highest court in the hierarchy of judiciary in Tanzania. Their decision will determine whether K-Lynn will walk away with Mengi’s billions all to herself or if she will split it with Mengi’s children from his first marriage.
