Making a will becomes more complicated when your life crosses borders. A person may live in Rwanda, own an apartment in Kenya, hold shares in a Ugandan company, keep money in several bank accounts and have family in Europe, North America or elsewhere in Africa. Writing a sentence saying that everything should go to a spouse or children may express the person’s wishes, but it does not necessarily solve the legal problem. The important question is whether those wishes can actually be carried out in every country where the assets are situated.

For foreigners with assets in East Africa, estate planning should therefore begin with geography rather than with a template downloaded from the internet. This guide considers Kenya, Uganda, Mainland Tanzania and Rwanda. Their laws do not treat foreign wills, land and probate in exactly the same way.

Start by identifying where every important asset legally sits

Before drafting a will, prepare an asset map. The purpose is not simply to estimate wealth. It is to identify which legal system may control each asset. Land is the obvious example, but the same exercise should include bank accounts, company shares, vehicles, investment accounts, valuable personal property and interests in businesses.

Kenya demonstrates why this matters. Section 4 of the Law of Succession Act provides that succession to immovable property situated in Kenya is governed by Kenyan law regardless of where the deceased was domiciled. Movable property is generally governed by the law of the deceased person’s domicile at death. A foreign will therefore cannot safely be treated as though one country’s succession rules automatically travel with the owner into Kenya.

The same practical distinction should guide planning elsewhere. Before stating that a beneficiary will “inherit my house”, confirm what legal interest the testator actually owns and whether the intended beneficiary can legally hold that interest.

A foreign will may be valid but still need local legal machinery

There are really two questions. The first is whether the will itself is recognised. The second is whether the executor can use it to deal with local assets.

Kenya has detailed rules for foreign testamentary arrangements. Section 77 of the Law of Succession Act permits the High Court to reseal grants issued by courts in Commonwealth countries and in other foreign countries formally designated under Kenyan law. The Probate and Administration Rules require supporting material that can include the foreign grant, an inventory of Kenyan assets, evidence concerning domicile and proof of death. A foreign grant should therefore not be treated as automatically enforceable in Kenya without checking whether resealing is required and available.

Uganda takes a related but not identical approach. Section 177 of the Succession Act allows letters of administration to be granted where an authenticated copy of a will has been proved and deposited by a competent court outside Uganda. Section 184 is especially important in practice: a person cannot establish a right in a Ugandan court merely by calling himself or herself the foreign executor or legatee. The required Ugandan probate or administration authority must first exist.

Mainland Tanzania also provides a resealing procedure. Part X of the Probate and Administration of Estates Act concerns grants made by courts of probate in other parts of the Commonwealth. The current Probate Rules provide procedures for an application to the High Court, supporting documents, notice and an inventory and valuation of property. Someone relying on a grant from outside that statutory route should obtain Tanzanian advice rather than assume that a foreign grant can simply be presented to a bank or land registry.

Rwanda has a particularly useful conflict-of-laws rule for foreign residents. Article 70 of Law No. 27/2016 provides that the form of a will made by a foreign national residing in Rwanda is generally governed by the law of the country where the will is made. If the foreigner makes the will in Rwanda, he or she may choose to comply with the formal requirements of the country of origin. The substance and effects are governed by the law of the foreigner’s country of origin. This makes nationality and place of execution matters that should be discussed before, not after, the will is signed.

Land needs separate attention

A well-drafted will cannot give a beneficiary a form of ownership that land law prohibits.

Kenya’s Constitution limits a non-citizen to leasehold land for no more than ninety-nine years. If an instrument purports to give a non-citizen a greater interest, Article 65 treats the interest as a ninety-nine-year leasehold. That rule matters where a foreign testator or beneficiary assumes that a freehold interest will simply pass unchanged through succession.

Uganda’s Land Act is also explicit. A non-citizen may acquire a lease, but a lease granted to a non-citizen cannot exceed ninety-nine years, and a non-citizen cannot acquire or hold mailo or freehold land. A will that ignores this restriction may leave the executor with a problem rather than a solution.

Mainland Tanzania requires particularly careful advice. In Attorney General v Emmanuel Marangakisi & Others, decided by the Court of Appeal in August 2025, the Court held that a non-citizen cannot acquire landed property through inheritance outside the statutory investment route. A Tanzanian citizen with children or other intended heirs who are foreign nationals should therefore not assume that naming them in a will is sufficient to transfer land directly to them.

Rwanda’s Law No. 27/2021 likewise places conditions on foreign landholding, while its land-registration rules provide procedures for registering land through intestate succession and inheritance. A foreign beneficiary should therefore establish both that he or she has succession rights and that the particular form of landholding can legally be registered in that person’s name. Those are related questions, but they are not the same question.

Choose the executor for the job that actually exists

An executor should not be selected only because he or she is trustworthy. Cross-border administration requires someone who can obtain documents, communicate with banks and registries, instruct lawyers where necessary and deal with more than one jurisdiction.

Rwanda’s succession law expressly allows a testator to appoint one or several testamentary executors. Other jurisdictions likewise recognise executor or administrator roles through their probate systems. If the proposed executor lives thousands of kilometres away, the will should be planned with the practical cost and delay of local administration in mind.

Where separate wills are being considered for different countries, coordination is essential. A later will containing broad language such as “I revoke all previous wills” can create an unintended dispute about an earlier foreign will. Each document should make clear which assets and jurisdiction it is intended to cover, and the lawyers preparing the documents should know that the other wills exist.

Do not forget bank accounts and company shares

A bank account does not move merely because the will names a beneficiary. Once the bank learns of the account holder’s death, the person seeking control will ordinarily have to establish the authority required by the local succession system. That is one reason probate and letters of administration matter even where the family agrees about who should receive the money.

Company shares require similar preparation. Record the exact company name, jurisdiction of incorporation, shareholding and where the corporate records are kept. The will should also be checked against the company’s constitution, shareholders’ agreement and any contractual transfer restrictions. A beneficiary may inherit the economic value of an interest while still having to satisfy corporate procedures before being entered in the company’s register.

Coordinated estate planning is the safer approach

The strongest cross-border will is not necessarily the longest. It is the one that has been tested against the assets it is supposed to govern.

A foreign resident with East African property should know where each major asset is situated, how it is legally held, whether the intended heir can hold it, which court or authority will recognise the executor, and whether a foreign probate grant will need local recognition. Copies of land documents, share certificates or company records, account information and identification documents should be stored securely, while a trusted person should know where the original will can be found.

The central lesson is that a will expresses intention, but administration turns intention into ownership. Where several countries are involved, the two must be planned together.

Source note and disclaimer

This article is based principally on Kenya’s Law of Succession Act, Probate and Administration Rules and Constitution; Uganda’s Succession Act and Land Act; Tanzania’s Probate and Administration of Estates Act and Probate Rules, together with Attorney General v Emmanuel Marangakisi & Others [2025] TZCA 870; and Rwanda’s Law No. 27/2016 governing matrimonial regimes, donations and successions, Law No. 27/2021 governing land, and the Ministerial Order on Land Registration. It is prepared for general public legal education and is not a substitute for estate-planning advice concerning a particular person’s nationality, domicile, family circumstances or assets.

Suggested citation

Ronald Serwanga, “An East African Will: Protecting Your Assets Abroad” East Africa Legal Insight (11 September 2026).