27/04/2025
In January of 1968, former Mau Mau lawyer and Minister for Foreign Affairs C.M.G Argwings - Kodhek created a trust in London, depositing into the trust the princely sum of £150,000, with the express instructions that that trust was only supposed to be liquidated in 2020. What is surprising about this trust is, first that it reveals five other children not known to be Argwings - Kodhek children as beneficiaries of and it specifically leaves out his daughter, first child Carole. The reasons as to why she have been left out have become the subject of much conversation at this point, especially since the trust is now being accessed by his living children and has come to be valued at in excess of Kshs 25 Billion.
The matter of Carole Argwings - Kodhek is a little bit confusing.
First Argwings - Kodhek had been married to Mavis Tate whom he met in London, with whom he had three children. The first one who died shortly after birth, the second one being Carole, the third one being Shirley.
Thereafter, and in almost amazing fashion once in Kenya Mavis began to, for lack of better words, philander, having several relationships with European men in Nairobi. This made Argwings - Kodhek so angry he closed his law practice and went back to Gem - Malanga to live spending most of his days with his father traditional Chief Jacobo O'dhek.
In 1957 his wife followed him to Malanga, said goodbye to him, and moved back to London. At the time of her departure she was heavily pregnant with twins, who were the children of a well known Nairobi based European businessman and Argwings - Kodhek had become aware of this and knew that if the children were born they would have been born completely white, an embarrassment that he as a rising political star in the capital was not willing to stomach.
In the interim years Argwings - Kodhek got married again to the famous Joan Priscilla Omondo lovingly dubbed the "Queen of Nyanza" for her radient beauty and prized lineage (her father Timothy Omondo was the foster father of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga) and had four children with her Clement Gem, Micheal Caesar, Sharon Awour and Eugene Agwingi (born after his father's death).
It was not until 1967 that the matter of his two children with Mavis came to his attention again.
The Kenyan High Commissioner in London Mugo (the husband former senator Beth Mugo) contacted Njoroge Mungai then Minister of Defense and Kenyatta's nephew, a key member of the Kiambu Mafia and a close friend of C.M.G Argwings - Kodhek and told him that Mavis was effectively clinically insane, living on the streets of London, moving from the house of one Kenyan to another and with no money deeply ill and asked Mungai to speak to Argwings - Kodhek (who was Mugo's boss and Miniatwr for Foreign Affairs) about the children being brought back to Kenya.
"Mungai raised the matter with his wife Joan and she raised the matter with him to which he rebuffed, famously stating that "you don't know the danger of that child" says Carole's cousin Otieno Onyango.
He continues "Mungai then sat down with Argwings - Kodhek other close friend and former housemate from London, Attorney - General Charles Njonjo and impressed upon him the importance of bringing the children back. Njonjo said that only Kenyatta could make C.M.G bring them back".
"Later Finance Minister James Gishuru and Minister of State in the Office of the President Mbiyu Koinange were roped into these discussions, and all of them agreed that on the occasions on which they had spoken to Argwings - Kodhek
about bringing the children back he had merely brushed the matter aside saying "Shirley yes, Carole no".
"Later after Mwai Kibaki, Argwings - Kodhek's best man at his wedding to Joan failed to make any headway Mungai, Njonjo, Koinange and Kibaki approached President Kenyatta" says another of Carole's cousins Luka Odit.
He continues "President Kenyatta called Joan then summoned C.M.G Argwings - Kodhek to State House and told him 'It is becoming embarrassing. The British High Commission has spoken to me about it as Foreign Minister your children should not be living on the streets in London'. Argwings - Kodhek agreed to bring the children home. The children were seized by Social Services and handed over to the Kenya High Commission and flown to Nairobi. When they arrived in Nairobi their father refused to pick them up from Embakasi Airport and was only to see them in the evening some 17 hours after their arrival. Very comfortable with Shirley. He gave a very cold shoulder to Carole and left the matters of having the children settle, having them put in schools, and having them begin life in Kenya, all to their step - mother Joan.
"From there, he develops a very strong relationship with Shirley, who he continuously describes as a 'good girl' but kept Carole at arm's length. Carole proceeds to be a rather rowdy teenager once she starts school at Mary Hill and has at her several affairs with the children of Kenya's who's who at the time, prompting her father to warn her that she's going to end up pregnant. I believe this to be the last conversation between the two before he dies in mysterious circumstances".
Many to this date believe that he was killing was an assassination planned and orchestrated by Moi since Argwings - Kodhek was Kenyatta's preferred choice as a successor.
"After her father's death, her step - mother Joan continues to live with her and Shirley ensures that they finish school" says another cousin Mary Adero.
"As soon as Carole finishes school, she bolts and lives in one house after another with different men to the point where she ends up with Robbie Armstrong and tries to marry Robbie secretly in a traditional wedding which her grandfather puts a stop to. She then elopes and has a daughter Caroline with Armstrong".
"She then begins to interfere in the matters of the inheritance of her father and the distribution of his estate. Carole was very bitter against Joan, even though Joan is the one who brought her to Kenya, the one who looked after her, the one who clothed her, the one who applied and put her in school, the one who took care of all her affairs. She said that Joan is the one who got her father to chase away her mother when it is very clear that Argwings - Kodhek did not meet Joan until some six years after her mother has left. On top of that, she glosses over the fact that her mother was extremely promiscuous and was pregnant with another man's children while she was still married. But to her, all of this was irrelevant".
"She gets involved in all sorts of sabotage. She refuses to sign the documents that allow her grandparents to get their inheritance money, that allows her sisters and her to get their inheritance money. Last I checked, the amount that was supposed to be paid to each of my grandparents still held by the Public Trustee was Kshs 160 Million for each Jacobo and Teresia both died without seeing a cent. And to Carole herself, her sister Shirley and to her sister Sharon Kshs 160 Million money to this date that has not been dispersed. Sharon died without seeing a cent."
"She organizes to destroy the marriage certificate and marriage records of her father's marriage to his Joan at Holy Family Basilica in Nairobi and goes about sabotaging the family at every single stage" says a cousin of hers Jacinta Atieno.
"It is not only that. She herself seems to show signs that she has the same disease that her mother had. Her mother was definitely bipolar and had suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and at the end appears to have succumbed to a brain tumor. But Carole appears to be bipolar and suffer from paranoid schizophrenia which have been made worse by alcohol and he**in and then later on by repeated promiscuity".
"Carole has slept at every police station in Nairobi for being drink and disorderly. She even attempts to commit su***de on three occasions. At every single one of these steps the person who steped in to steady the boat was the step -mother she hated so much."
"If you look at Carole's children the older one Carolinealways called her step - grandmother 'Mummy' because she spent so much time living with her step - grandmother, who her mother hated. Her youngest child Samantha, after her mother had her left for America for three years during which time Samantha was brought up by her step - grandmother as well. And Samantha also called her step - grandmother Mummy. It's a tragedy that we as a family have always had to deal with and dealing with the tragedy and dealing with Carole has never been easy."
"The alcohol, the drugs, the promiscuity has always been terrible. But the greatest injustice is that she stopped her grandparents from getting their inheritance money. She stopped one of her sisters from getting her inheritance money who is now deceased. And she's stopped her other sister from getting money that had been put aside for her specifically by her father" says another cousin Joseph Onyango.
"Her father somehow knew the way things were going to go and the fact that he did not include her and that she cannot access any money from the trust, tells a story that has been hidden for decades now. Carole has acted for years like a witch in this family. Tolerated and accommodated only by the person she fought all her life. Joan. We always wanted to deal with her but Joan restrained us and Joan gathered so much respect in this family and the wider Gem that nobody dared oppose her".
"Now Kshs 25 Billion estate being divided among ten children, she's been left out. The worst thing about it the people who she fought for so long her fathers children these children benefit from it because he specifically names them. One of them is even a sitting MP. This is the tragedy of this daughter. This is the tragedy of her story that has been glossed over all this time. And hidden by the Argwings - Kodhek's and the O'dhek clan at large from the world to protect her dignity and to hide the way they have struggled with her".
"When she heard about the trust she rushed to London and has been back several times. When they were taking DNA of Argwings - Kodhek children they refused to take from her. She was crestfallen and collapsed and was in hospital in London for a week. It is poetic justice. Hopefully now her father can truly rest in peace."
