Jimmy Kibaki gets a slice of Sh2.4bn GSU land payment

Politics and policy

President Uhuru Kenyatta inspects a recruits parade during a pass-out at the GSU Training School in Embakasi, Nairobi. PHOTO | FILE 

By BRIAN WASUNA, bwasuna@ke.nationmedia.com

In Summary

• Former President’s son to pocket Sh100 million for ‘offering services’ to owners of Ruaraka plot.

Former President Mwai Kibaki’s son Jimmy is among beneficiaries of a Sh2.4 billion payout that the government made for the controversial 37.4-acre General Service Unit (GSU) land in Nairobi’s Ruaraka.

City tycoon Francis Mburu, who won the payout in a protracted court battle with the government, has now revealed that Jimmy was entitled to Sh100 million of the total amount “for services rendered” to his company, Afrison Export Import Limited.

Mr Mburu was to split some Sh400 million the government had paid him as instalment among Mr Kibaki (Sh100 million), Almasi Limited (Sh165 million), and a Mr F M Mulwa (Sh70 million).

The payment was to be made through two law firms — Harit Sheth Advocates and Mahmoud & Gitau Advocates — he hired in 2013 to oversee the settlements.

Harit Seth was to receive the Sh400 million from the government then hand it over to Mahmoud & Gitau for onward transmission to Mr Kibaki, Mr Mulwa and Almasi Limited.

A fight, however, ensued among the three parties, scuttling the planned disbursement of the funds and seeing the matter back to court.

Mr Mburu accuses Mahmoud & Gitau Advocates of fraud for attempting to pay people not included in his instructions. The Treasury was to release the funds to Mr Mburu in July.

Details of the payments have emerged in suit papers that Mr Mburu filed in court in July seeking to stop Harit Sheth Advocates from paying out any money to Mahmoud & Gitau Advocates.

Mr Mburu has sued the two law firms through Afrison Export & Import Limited — a company he wholly owns.

The businessman, however, holds that his biggest discontent is with Mahmoud & Gitau Advocates, which he claims wanted to sneak unauthorised individuals into the list of beneficiaries. Mr Mburu has not, however, named the said persons in court.

“In terms of the said undertaking, Mahmoud & Gitau Advocates were supposed to pay Mr Kibaki Sh100 million, Mr Mulwa Sh70 million and Almasi Limited Sh165 million,” Mr Mburu says, adding that he had within the month of June 2015 made numerous attempts to prevail upon the defendants to stick to his earlier instructions when executing the assignment but none of them had responded.

Mr Mburu did not disclose in the proceedings what services Mr Kibaki and the other beneficiaries offered his firm or whether the services were related to the land battle. 

READ: City tycoon to get Sh600m payout in GSU land dispute

The High Court has quashed the instructions Mr Mburu gave to the lawyers after finding that the letter with the instructions was vague and could not be said to be legally binding.

Justice Francis Gikonyo ruled that the instructions issued to Harit Sheth in June 2013 were too vague and ordered the payout stopped until a more descriptive set of instructions are issued.