Business -Wealthy Rai family is embroiled in a bitter rivalry over family’s wealth left behind by their father in 2010.
The family is currently in court where a section went to seek justice after they had learnt that one of their siblings Jaswant Rai wanted to short change them through a fake Will.
They are currently at the High Court in protest of the Will left behind by their diseased parent who was the families Patrich’s Tarlochan Singh Rai who, according to court details, died on December 28, 2010 while undergoing treatment in Mumbai India.
The battle has seen Jasbir and Iqbal objecting to the copy of the Will that is now deposited with the court. They argue that the family’s patriarch could have been coerced into crafting the Will dated Dec 17,1999 that distributed his assets among his eight beneficiaries.
They implicated the executor of the Will Mr. Jaswant Rai who is the current Chairman of Rai Group of Companies.
They don’t want their sibling Mr. Jaswant granted express administration permission to distribute the vast family empire.
The business which has spread and dominated the sugar sector also has a presence across East Africa, Malawi, India and London. This include cement production (Rai Cement), edible oils and soaps (Menengai Oil Refineries), saw milling (Timsales, RaiPly and Webuye Panpaper), wheat farming, horticulture, sugar industry (Kabras Sugar) and real estate (Tulip Properties).
On his part, Jaswant claims that whatever is in the Will is what their father wanted and changing it will be against the spirit of their late dad.
Mr. Jaswant further explained to the court that his late father left behind a net worth of Sh. 329 million with no liabilities. However, his relatives claim that their father had declared that he owned 42.72 percent of Rai Investments Limited in 1999, a declaration that Jaswant has stated at seven per cent.
They also say that Jaswant left out Rai Management and Technical Services Limited registered in the tax haven of Jersey Island, Rai Agro Industries Limited in Sangrur in India and companies known as Stonybrook Limited and Waterloo Limited both registered in Cayman Islands, and millions of dollars in accounts at Citibank outlets in London and New Delhi in the Will.
The complainants also told the court that Jaswant and their father were shareholders of Rai Holdings Limited in Kampala, which in 2006 bought a 51 percent stake in Kinyara Sugar Works at Sh.3.7 billion and this has to be part of the succession deal.
