How remarriage to singer Guardian Angel led to Esther Musila losing control of multimillion estate

She walked down the aisle in 2021 with flowers in her hands and joy on her face, and Kenya watched every second of it.

Esther Musila, a 52-year-old widow, mother of three, the former civil servant, had chosen love again, and the man she chose was gospel singer Guardian Angel, whose real name is Audiphaxad Peter Omwaka, then aged 33.

It was, by every human measure, a beautiful thing. Kenya watched, debated, mocked, and theorised about the union.

What nobody announced at that wedding, what no guest whispered and no pastor mentioned between the vows, not the critics, not perhaps even Esther herself, was that somewhere in the fine print of the Law of Succession Act, a clock had just started ticking.

Buried inside that Act, in Section 35(1), was a provision that had been waiting patiently for exactly this moment.

Esther grew up in Nakuru County, the daughter of a statistical analyst and a government security agent.

Early romance

Years later, she joined Siginon Freight, a logistics company, and it was there, in the late 1980s, that she met the man who would change the course of her life.

His name was Eric Kiptanui Naibei. He did not want people to know they were dating, because they worked at the same company. They dated quietly. Then came a pregnancy, the decision to leave the firm, and eventually a marriage.

She would later join the United Nations in 2001. Esther would admit on a podcast alongside Guardian Angel that she had not fully enjoyed that first marriage, having entered it young.

“Perhaps in my first marriage, I got married at a young age, and therefore, I didn’t have the opportunity to fully relish the role of being a wife. It was more about other people at that time,” she said.

But whatever its private textures, the marriage produced three children, Gideon Mallan Kimkung Naibei, Gilda Maua Mbeke Naibei, and Glenn Imann Naibei, and it ran alongside the construction of an empire.

Naibei, a wealthy Kenyan businessman, was not a man who stood still; he built a multi-million estate, and Esther was beside him for all of it.

When he drew his last breath on August 30, 2016, he left behind more than grief.

Court documents filed in Succession Cause 1235 of 2017 at the High Court in Nairobi paint a picture of a man who had built something formidable: shares in Majestic Security System Limited, Mt Elgon Distributors Limited, and Scammer Agencies Limited.

Add to that bank accounts in both Transnational Bank and Standard Chartered Bank; and prime properties including Title No. Nakuru Municipality/Block 16/191, Eldoret Municipality/Block 9/1245, and Eldoret Municipality/Block 9/1786.

Estate legacy

This was not a man who died without means. This was a man who died with an empire, and the question of who would guard it would consume his family for the next five years.

Under Kenyan law, when a man dies intestate, without a Will, his estate does not simply fall into the hands of whoever is closest.

There is a process: forms, applications, affidavits, hearings, a grant of letters of administration, and ultimately a confirmation of that grant, which finalises the distribution plan.

Esther went through that process. On February 14, 2018, the High Court issued her a grant of letters of administration over her late husband’s estate, confirmed on June 18, 2018.

Under the arrangement, she was to hold three immovable properties in trust for herself and the three adult children, while the shares in the three companies, along with the bank accounts, were transferred to her absolutely.

It seemed, on paper, like a clean arrangement, a grieving widow entrusted to guard what her husband had built, for the sake of their children.

Then, a year after the grant, Esther entered a romantic relationship with gospel singer Guardian Angel, known for the hit song “Rada Ibadilike”.

He proposed to her on her birthday. They wedded on his birthday. The 20-year age gap became the country’s most relitigated relationship fact, and Guardian Angel endured, he said, a continuous onslaught of insults. He ignored them and focused on his music.

But while Kenyans argued about the age gap, something else entirely was happening inside the walls of the High Court in Nairobi. A fresh case had been filed by Esther’s firstborn son Gideon on January 26, 2022, seeking the revocation of his mother’s grant of letters of administration over his late father’s estate.

His allegations were not vague. They were precise, serious, and supported by a paper trail that the court would ultimately find compelling.

His first allegation was forgery. He told the court that his consent to the confirmation of the grant had been forged, that the signature appearing on Form 37, the written consent required under Rule 40(8) of the Probate and Administration Rules, was not his.

He further alleged that his mother had misled the court during confirmation proceedings by claiming he was away, having travelled to Mt Elgon, when no such travel had occurred.

“My mother misled the court that I was aware of the date of confirmation, and that I had travelled, whereas that was not true… My mother cut me off from family and court proceedings,” Gideon told the court.

He also contended that three of the properties listed in the estate confirmation didn’t actually belong to his late father personally.

They belonged to the companies in which his father held shares. Parcel LR No 209/12892 was held by Rorete Estate Limited. Eldoret Municipality/Block 4/113 was held by Scammer Agencies Limited, Eldoret Municipality/Block 3/53 was held by Mount Elgon Distributors Limited.

By listing those company-owned properties as personal assets and then transferring the shares to herself absolutely, Gideon argued, his mother had engineered a situation where she was effectively the sole inheritor of everything, leaving him and his siblings with nothing. “My mother then proceeded to allocate the shares in the said companies to herself absolutely, thereby making her the absolute owner of the entire estate of the deceased to the exclusion of all other beneficiaries,” Gideon told the court.

In her replying affidavit sworn on June 10, 2022, Esther denied everything.

She insisted she was not trying to disinherit her children, they were her biological children, she loved them, and she was protecting the estate, not stealing it.

On the question of Gideon’s fitness, she told the court he had a substance abuse problem that rendered him unfit to manage himself, let alone a multi-million shilling estate.

Parental defence

“I deny that I intended to disinherit Gideon or the other beneficiaries who are all my biological children. I also deny cutting off Gideon, as I have provided for his needs, including taking him to rehabilitation due to substance abuse,” she said.

She produced payment receipts of Sh60,000 to Psychological Healthcare Services Thika Counselling Home dated September 11, 2015, and another of Sh55,000 to the same facility dated November 19, 2015.

On the remarriage, she did not deny it, but committed before the court to discharging her administrative duties without discrimination and vowed to distribute the estate to all beneficiaries at the opportune time.

In the ruling rendered on October 7, 2022, Justice Mugure Thande examined the two consent forms, from the original grant application and from the confirmation proceedings, and found them distinctly different. “When one looks at the consent to the application for the grant and to the confirmation of grant, it is easily discernible that the signatures attributed to the applicant are distinctly different,” Justice Thande stated.

On the substance abuse argument, the court found a contradiction that almost dismantled itself. If Gideon’s mental state was so impaired as to render him unfit to administer the estate, how had he had the capacity to sign the very consent form Esther was relying on?

“I find this rather curious given that the respondent claimed that the applicant signed the consent to confirmation. If the applicant’s substance abuse has affected his mental state so as to render him incapable of being administrator, it would follow that he had no capacity to sign the consent to confirmation,” Justice Thande held.

The court also noted that the medical records were from 2015, a year before Kiptanui even died, and that no court order under Section 26 of the Mental Health Act had ever been sought to formally declare Gideon mentally incapacitated.

“While it is evident that Gideon was dependent on alcohol and was treated in 2015, there is no evidence that he is still dependent on the same or that his mental capacity is impaired due to his substance abuse.

“For this court to accept the claim by Esther, a court order declaring Gideon a person suffering from mental disorder under Section 26 of the Mental Health Act ought to have been placed before the court. Without such proof, the contention by his mother in this regard is hereby rejected,” the judge added.

On company assets, the court held that properties owned by companies cannot be treated as personal assets of a deceased shareholder, and their inclusion in the confirmation alone was sufficient grounds to invalidate it.

On the omitted properties, the remedy was not revocation but inclusion; those assets should simply be added to the estate in any fresh distribution.

On Esther’s remarriage, the court clarified that remarriage by itself does not automatically cancel a grant of administration under Section 76(e) of the Law of Succession Act.

However, it carries a separate and absolute legal consequence under Section 35(1): it automatically terminates a widow’s life interest in the estate of her late husband by operation of law.

Upon remarriage, that interest determines, no discretion, no exceptions.

Combined with the forgery, the company asset irregularity, the omitted properties, and the open warfare between mother and son Gideon, the grant could not survive.

“The open hostility between the applicant and the respondent makes it undesirable for the respondent to continue being administrator of the estate of the deceased herein,” Justice Thande ruled.

The grant of letters of administration issued to Esther on February 14, 2018 was revoked, and the certificate of confirmation of grant dated June 18, 2019 cancelled. “A fresh grant was issued to the three children Gideon, Gilda, and Glenn, with the estate to devolve to them in equal shares. Being a family matter, no order was made as to costs,” the judge ordered.

When the ruling resurfaced and went viral on Tuesday, March 31, 2026, Kenyans did what they do best. They connected dots, built theories, and dragged names. The loudest name dragged was Guardian Angel’s.

The narrative ran like a rehearsed script: young gospel singer from poverty marries wealthy older widow, plays the devoted husband, lies low while the estate battle plays out, and waits patiently to pocket everything. He was the motive, the theory went. He was the reason she had overreached.

Public reaction

By March 31, 2026, Esther had seen enough. She went live, telling Kenyans not to drag her innocent husband into matters that did not involve him.

“You busybodies out there, my husband was not with me in 2017, so trying to drag his name into this will not work. Everybody around me knows that he has earned everything he has worked for,” a visibly angry Esther said.

“This guy does not sleep. He has no inheritance waiting for him. He knows what it is to be poor and that is why he works hard. All you busybodies who have nothing should stop coming to drag my husband into nonsense. I will defend him every day and to the last day,” she added.

She said everything about her does not revolve around her husband,that she had a life before him, and that she was focused on their future.

Guardian Angel, on his part, said nothing. No statement. No post.