A person can be an heir and still be unable to take a particular asset in the form the deceased owned it. That distinction is especially important for foreigners inheriting property in East Africa.

Succession law answers questions such as who inherits, whether a will is valid and who may administer the estate. Land law answers a different question: what kind of interest may that person legally hold? Confusing the two can lead a family to believe that a will guarantees ownership when the land legislation says otherwise.

The position differs substantially between Kenya, Uganda, Mainland Tanzania and Rwanda.

In Kenya, inheritance does not displace the non-citizen land rule

Kenyan succession law governs immovable property situated in Kenya regardless of the deceased person’s domicile. That means a person cannot avoid Kenyan rules governing Kenyan land merely because the will was signed elsewhere.

Article 65 of the Constitution then places a substantive restriction on the resulting landholding. A non-citizen may hold land only on leasehold tenure, and the lease cannot exceed ninety-nine years. Where a document purports to confer something greater, the Constitution treats it as a ninety-nine-year leasehold interest.

The useful practical point is that being named in a will does not necessarily mean that the foreign heir receives precisely the same tenure the deceased enjoyed. The administrator should first establish the deceased’s title and the beneficiary’s citizenship before preparing transfer documents.

If probate was obtained abroad, there may be an additional procedural step. Section 77 of the Law of Succession Act provides for the resealing of qualifying foreign grants. The High Court procedure should be completed before the foreign representative assumes that the grant can be used to transfer Kenyan property.

Uganda draws a sharp line between leasehold and mailo or freehold

Uganda’s Land Act permits a non-citizen to acquire a lease, subject to the statutory requirements. A lease of five years or more must be registered, and a non-citizen cannot be granted a lease exceeding ninety-nine years.

More importantly, section 41 states that a non-citizen cannot acquire or hold mailo or freehold land. The restriction also contains detailed rules for determining when a company is treated as non-citizen for landholding purposes.

An overseas heir should therefore not ask only, “Am I in the will?” The next question is, “What tenure is this land?” A leasehold interest may raise a very different issue from freehold or mailo property.

Other assets should be analysed separately. Money, vehicles, shares and personal property are not automatically subject to the landholding restriction merely because they form part of the same estate. Uganda’s Succession Act also requires proper administration authority before rights as executor, legatee or intestate beneficiary can be established through the courts.

Mainland Tanzania now has a particularly important rule

For many years, the question whether a non-citizen could inherit Tanzanian land was legally contentious. The Court of Appeal has now provided a much clearer answer.

In Attorney General v Emmanuel Marangakisi & Others [2025] TZCA 870, decided on 22 August 2025, the Court of Appeal held that non-citizens cannot acquire landed property through inheritance outside the investment exception permitted under Tanzanian land law. The Court rejected the argument that inheritance should escape the restriction merely because title passes through transmission rather than an ordinary sale or grant.

This has a major practical consequence. A foreign heir should not assume that the land can first be registered in his or her name and sold later. The administration of the estate must be structured consistently with the restriction itself.

That does not mean a foreign relative ceases to exist as an heir for every purpose. The decision concerns landed property. Other estate value, including movable assets and lawfully distributable proceeds, must be considered under the relevant succession rules. Professional advice is particularly important before an administrator signs a land transfer or distribution schedule involving a foreign beneficiary.

Rwanda requires succession law and land law to be read together

Rwanda’s succession legislation recognises testamentary and intestate succession, while the Ministerial Order on Land Registration sets out documentation for registering land following either intestate succession or inheritance under a will.

For intestate succession, the Order refers to documents certifying the heirs or, where there is a dispute, a judgment confirming them, together with the existing land-registration certificate and identification documents. For inheritance based on a will, the process requires the will and relevant land and identity documents.

That procedure answers the registration question, but the recipient’s landholding rights still have to comply with the governing land law. Law No. 27/2021 contains a specific regime for foreigners, including emphyteutic leases and land concessions. A foreign heir should therefore ask what title can lawfully be recorded in the particular circumstances instead of assuming that succession preserves every feature of the deceased’s previous title.

Rwanda also has a particularly relevant rule for wills made by foreign residents. Article 70 of Law No. 27/2016 separates questions of the will’s form from its substance and effects, connecting them respectively to the place of making the will and, generally, the foreigner’s country of origin.

The safest question is not simply “Who inherits?”

Families dealing with cross-border estates should work through the problem in sequence. First identify the asset and its legal title. Next establish the applicable will or intestacy rules. Then establish the administrator’s authority. After that, determine whether the proposed beneficiary may legally hold that particular asset and tenure. Only then should transfer or sale documents be prepared.

This distinction can also prevent unnecessary family conflict. A foreign heir who cannot receive a particular form of land title is not necessarily being “cut out” by the administrator. The administrator may be trying to comply with a mandatory land rule while preserving whatever economic entitlement the succession law allows.

The reverse is also true. A landholding restriction should not be used casually as an excuse to deprive a foreign beneficiary of unrelated movable property or lawful proceeds. Each asset should be classified and dealt with under the rule that actually applies to it.

Inheritance is therefore not one legal question. It is a chain of legal questions. In cross-border estates, the strongest protection for an heir is understanding each link before property changes hands.

Source note and disclaimer

This article is based on the Constitution of Kenya and Law of Succession Act; Uganda’s Land Act and Succession Act; Tanzania’s land-law framework, Probate and Administration of Estates Act and the Court of Appeal decision in Attorney General v Emmanuel Marangakisi & Others [2025] TZCA 870; and Rwanda’s Law No. 27/2016, Law No. 27/2021 and Ministerial Order on Land Registration. It is intended for public legal education and does not determine the rights of any particular beneficiary.

Suggested citation

Ronald Serwanga, “Claiming East African Property: A Heir Abroad Guide” East Africa Legal Insight (11 September 2026).