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Section 3 of Law of Succession Act CAP 160: Interpretation

    

(1) In this Act, except where the context otherwise requires—
“active service” means service with the armed forces or merchant marine on a field of military operations or at sea, or proceeding to or from or such field or sea, or under orders to proceed to such field or sea, or in being in some place for the purpose of proceeding to such field or sea; “administrator” means a person to whom a grant of letters of administration has been made under this Act;
“agricultural land” means land used for agricultural purposes which is not within a municipality or a township or a market but does not include land registered under the provisions of any written law;
“authorized investment”, with reference to the investment of any fund, means an investment of such type as is authorized for investment of that fund by any will applying thereto, or as is for the time being authorized by any written law for the investment of trust funds;
“charitable purpose” includes the relief of poverty, the advancement of education, the advancement of religion, and any other purpose of a public nature and capable of administration by a court of law which benefits the community at large or the inhabitants or a particular class of inhabitants of a particular locality;
“codicil” means a testamentary instrument made in relation to a will, explaining, altering or adding to its dispositions or appointments, and duly made and executed as required by the provisions of this Act for the making and execution of a will;
“competent witness” means a person of sound mind and full age;
“court” means a court having jurisdiction under this Act in the matter in question;
“demonstrative legacy” means a testamentary gift which is in its nature general but which manifests an intention that the gift shall be primarily satisfied out of a specified fund or a specified part of the property of the testator, but shall, upon failure of that fund or property, be met from the general estate;
“estate” means the free property of a deceased person;
“executor” means a person to whom the execution of the last will of a deceased person is, by the testator’s appointment, confided;
“free property”, in relation to a deceased person, means the property of which that person was legally competent freely to dispose during his lifetime, and in respect of which his interest has not been terminated by his death;
“full age” means having attained the age of eighteen years;
“general legacy” means a testamentary gift, whether specific or general, of property described in general terms to be provided out of the general estate of the testator, whether or not also charged on any specific part of his estate;
“general power of appointment” means an unfettered power of
appointment to such object or objects as the appointer may think fit;
“general residuary bequest” means a testamentary gift of all the property of the testator not otherwise disposed of;
“house” means a family unit comprising a wife, whether alive or dead at the date of the death of the husband, and the children of that wife;
“income” includes rents and profits;
“independent witness” means a witness who is not a beneficiary under a will or the spouse of any such beneficiary;
“limited residuary bequest” means a testamentary gift which, but for some specific limitation therein expressed or implied, would constitute a general residuary bequest;
“minor” means any person who is not of full age;
“Muslim” means any person who professes the religion of Islam and accept the unity of God and Mohammed as his prophet;
“Muslim law” means the law applicable to a person who is a Muslim at the time of his death;
“net estate” means the estate of a deceased person after payment of reasonable funeral expenses, debts and liabilities, expenses of obtaining probate or letters of administration, other reasonable expenses of administration and estate duty, if any;
“net intestate estate” means the estate of a deceased person in respect of which he has died intestate after payment of the expenses, debts, liabilities and estate duty set out under the definition of “net estate”, so far as the expenses, debts, liabilities and estate duty are chargeable against that estate;
“particular residual bequest” means a testamentary gift of all of a particular property not otherwise disposed of;
“pecuniary legacy” includes an annuity, a general legacy, a demonstrative legacy so far as it is not discharged out of the specified fund or property, and any other general direction by the testator for the payment of money, including all death duties free from which any gift is made to take effect;
“personal and household effects” means clothing and articles of personal use and adornment, furniture, appliances, pictures, ornaments, food, drink, utensils and all other articles of household use or decoration normally to be associated with a matrimonial home, but does not include any motor vehicle or any other thing connected with the business or profession of the deceased;
“personal representative” means the executor or administrator, as the case may be, of a deceased person;
“portion” means provision by a parent or person in loco parentis to establish a child in life;
“power of appointment” means power vested in some person to determine the disposition of property of which that person is not the owner;
“probate” means the certificate of a court of competent jurisdiction, that a will, of which a certified copy is attached in the case of a written will, has been proved a valid will, with a grant of representation to the executor in respect of the estate;
“purchaser” means a purchaser for money or money’s worth;
“representation” means the probate of a will or the grant of letters of administration;
“special legacy” means a testamentary gift of a particular part of the property of the testator, which identifies that part by a sufficient description, whether in specific or in general terms, and manifests an intention that that part shall be enjoyed or taken in the state and condition indicated by that description;
“special power of appointment” means power of appointment to such object or objects within a special description or class as the appointer may think fit;
“trust corporation” means an incorporated banking or insurance or guarantee or trust company having a subscribed capital of not less than five hundred thousand shillings, or any body corporate which has a subscribed capital of not less than five hundred thousand shillings and which is for the time being empowered (by or under any written law, its charter, memorandum of association, deed of settlement or other instrument constituting it or defining its powers), to undertake trusts, but for so long a time only as that body corporate shall not, by any prospectus, circular, advertisement or other document issued by it or on its behalf, state or hold out that any liability attaches to the Public Trustee or to the Consolidated Fund in respect of any act or omission of that body corporate when acting as an executor or administrator:
Provided that a body corporate which would be a trust corporation but for the fact that its subscribed capital is less than five hundred thousand shillings may act as executor or administrator in any case with the leave of the court on giving such security as the court may determine, and thereupon for the purpose of so acting as executor or administrator that corporation shall have all the rights and privileges conferred on a trust corporation by this Act;
“wife” includes a wife who is separated from her husband and the terms “husband” and “spouse”, “widow” and widower” shall have a corresponding meaning;
“will” means the legal declaration by a person of his wishes or intentions regarding the disposition of his property after his death, duly made and executed according to the provisions of Part II, and includes a codicil.
(2) References in this Act to “child” or “children” shall include a child conceived but not yet born (as long as that child is subsequently born alive) and, in relation to a female person, any child born to her out of wedlock, and, in relation to a male person, any child whom he has expressly recognized or in fact accepted as a child of his own or for whom he has voluntarily assumed permanent responsibility.
(3) A child born to a female person out of wedlock, and a child as defined by subsection (2) as the child of a male person, shall have relationship to other persons through her or him as though the child had been born to her or him in wedlock.
(4) Where the date of birth of any person is unknown or cannot be ascertained, that person shall be treated as being of full age for the purposes of this Act if he has apparently attained the age of eighteen years, and shall not otherwise be so treated.
(5) Notwithstanding the provisions of any other written law, a woman married under a system of law which permits polygamy is, where her husband has contracted a previous or subsequent monogamous marriage to another woman, nevertheless a wife for the purposes of this Act, and in particular sections 29 and 40 thereof, and her children are accordingly children within the meaning of this Act.

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