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One is a tool for getting things done. The other is a structure for keeping things safe. Most diaspora families need both, in the right order

31 August 2026 | By Eugene Mukamba, Advocate

Almost every diaspora client who has protected land back home has, at some point, given a relative or advocate a Power of Attorney to handle it. Far fewer have asked the harder question: what happens to that arrangement the day something happens to me?

What a Power of Attorney Actually Is

A Power of Attorney is an authorisation — you appoint someone (your “attorney”, often your advocate) to act on your behalf for defined purposes, such as signing documents, managing a property, or representing you in a transaction.

It is a powerful and genuinely necessary tool, especially for diaspora Kenyans who cannot be physically present for every registry visit or transaction.

Where a Power of Attorney Runs Out of Road

• It is generally revocable at will, and automatically lapses on your death — it cannot pass management of your property to the next generation.
• It typically ends on your mental incapacity, unless specifically drafted as an enduring power — precisely the moment protection matters most.
• The attorney’s duty runs to you personally, not to a defined class of beneficiaries — there is no equivalent of a trustee’s fiduciary duty to a spouse or children who are not party to the document.
• It is a tool for getting a specific job done — registering land, executing a trust deed, completing a sale — not a long-term governance structure for how property should be managed for decades.

Where a Trust Picks Up the Difference

A trust is designed to outlive you. Once land is transferred into a properly incorporated family trust, it is managed by trustees under duties enforceable by law, for beneficiaries you define — and none of that structure depends on you remaining alive, present, or of sound mind. Where a Power of Attorney is a bridge to get a transaction done, a trust is the destination that keeps protecting the property long after.

The Question That Decides Which You Need

If the question is “how do I get this specific transaction done without flying home” — a Power of Attorney is the right tool.

If the question is “how do I make sure this land is protected and properly passed on regardless of what happens to me” — a Power of Attorney alone will not answer it.

A trust is the structure built for that second question, and it is the one most diaspora families are actually asking, whether or not they have realised it yet.