Left out of a will or given too little: asking the court for a share
Law of Succession Act · sources read 2 Oct 2026
If a will, or the rules for dying without a will, don't make reasonable provision for a dependant, the dependant can ask the court to order a reasonable share of the estate. The application has to be made before the grant is confirmed.
- Deadline
- No application can be brought after the grant of representation for the estate has been confirmed.
- Where
- The High Court, or a magistrate's court for estates within the magistrate's money limit (the court handling the succession cause).
Steps
- Apply to the court handling the estate (the High Court, or a magistrate's court for smaller estates) for reasonable provision out of the estate.
- The court looks at the size of the estate, your own income and needs, gifts you got during the deceased's life, your conduct towards them, the other dependants, and the deceased's reasons for leaving you out.
- The court can order a specific share of the estate, regular payments or a lump sum, with any conditions it sees fit.
Watch out
- Relatives other than spouses and children only qualify if the deceased was supporting them just before death.
- The court has full discretion, so being a dependant does not guarantee any particular share.
Who this covers
- The deceased's wife or wives, former wife or wives, and children, whether or not the deceased was supporting them.
- Parents, step-parents, grandparents, grandchildren, step-children, children taken in as the deceased's own, brothers and sisters and half-siblings, if the deceased was supporting them just before death.
- Where the deceased was a woman, her husband if she was supporting him just before her death.
Official sources (1)
- Law of Succession Act (Cap. 160) new.kenyalaw.org · read 2 Oct 2026