CAPTION: Prolific mastermind of high-profile thefts of public funds through fictitious claims Francis Mburu Mungai. He should face the firing squad as Kenyans cheer! Two very interesting things happened this week regarding the emerging story of a series of fake compensation claims by “businessman” Francis Mburu Mungai in cahoots with senior Government officials.
This morning, The Star Newspaper which had earlier ran a story based on the explosive dossier by whistleblower Meshack Onyango Depay, ran a massive apology to all those who were fingered by the story.
Using lofty language, The Star talked of journalistic standards that they may have unwittingly neglected to follow in doing the story, journalistic standards that every Kenyan knows don’t exist anywhere in the editorial department of this tabloid.
So comical was the apology that it reiterated ad verbatim what was in the dossier, for instance that senior Government officials were to receive kickbacks from the payment of the fake Ksh. 3.2B compensation to the tune of the following - Dr, Matiang’i (Ksh. 300m), Dr. Swazuri (Ksh. 400m), Dr. Munubi (Ksh. 150m), Dr. Belio (Ksh. 100m) Hon Amos Chepkut (Ksh. 100m) and Prof Githu Muigai (Ksh. 250m). Caption: Corrupt Mohammed Swazuri Counting his four wives. He was bribed with Ksh. 400m in the Ruaraka Saga Needless to say, The Star was inundated with over 10 demand letters from “reputable law firms” seeking a retraction of the story, else the tabloid would face fire and brimstone, within our much compromised judiciary.
Earlier in the week, before the August House went on a month-long recess, the issue of the Ksh. 3.2B fake compensation came up in Parliament as part of deliberations on Supplementary budget.
Apparently the law states that when Government must spend emergency funds, it quite alright as long as Parliament is apprised of this expenditure within 2 months .
The Supplementary Budget session was used to update Parliament that Ksh. 1.5B had been paid to Francis Mburu Mungai on 30 January 2018 through one of his companies Whispering Palms Estates Ltd and secondly to ensure the inclusion of the balance of Ksh. 1.7B in the supplementary budget (remember this payment had not been provided for in the National budget).
Would you expect a country that is currently in the midst of flood disaster and which only recently came from a massive, unprecedented maize and maize flour subsidy program to cushion Kenyans from prolonged drought, to be making land compensation to the tune of Ksh. 3.2B?
Remember, these monies will have been paid within 6 months in an effort to beat the end of the Government financial year-end.
Our moronic and borderline psychotic parliamentary class supported the payments, and gleefully passed the supplementary budget.
No dams, no Waterpans or any rain harvesting measure, yet by the year end we will be discussing grain shortage at NCPB, lack of short rains and increased cost of food.
Greed, can never be satisfied whatever the case. Francis Mburu Mungai is insatiable for money and he has the uncanny ability to think up new schemes to coerce Government to compensate him with public funds, multiple times, on the same parcel of Land.
In 2015 he filed a petition in the High Court number 376 of 2015 which was filed by the law firm M/S Kiplagat & Okoth Advocates.
Afrison Export Import Ltd and Hueland Ltd both owned by Francis Mburu alongside his sons ( Mark and Justin Mburu who are both Directors of Almasi Capital) have filed these claims which are based on the wrongful occupation of their parcel of Land at Ruaraka by the GSU and Administration police-cum- chiefs camp.
The figures are astounding to say the least, Ksh. 24B in rent over 30 years, Ksh, 32.7B for the land, Ksh. 79.8B interest on the land and Ksh.4.7B in other penalties & interests which amounts to Ksh. 141.2B (One hundred and forty-one fucking billion shillings)
As is normally the case with Francis Mburu, it almost never ends well with him. This claim at the High Court would become the basis of 2 legal claims for cost by the Law firm m/s Kilplgat & Okoth Associates. In his ruling, Justice Sergon noted that the law firm had failed in its due diligence to take proper instruction for the Ksh. 141B compensation from the legitimate Directors of the 2 companies (Afrisom & Hueland). The judge awarded Francis Mburu companies Ksh. 5.9m legal costs.
However, we digress…
The groundwork for this astronomical claim by Francis Mburu started years before in 2010.
The whistleblower Meshack Onyango claims in his explosive dossier (already delivered to Speakers of both houses) that he introduced Francis Mburu to the late Hon. Orwa Ojode. Francis Mburu had a sob story for late Assistant Minister, that he (Francis Mburu) had been targeted by the Moi regime and his parcel of land at Ruaraka forcefully occupied around 1988. Could the Ministry of Internal Security assist him get compensated?
To sweeten the deal, he proposed a compensation of Ksh. 33.6B for the entire parcel of Land (96 acres) from which he would give the Minister Prof. George Saitoti a sum of ksh. 10B to finance his Presidential campaign in 2012.
He proposed to give Orwa Ojode Ksh. 2B to share with his PS while another Ksh.1B would be shared by AGs Chambers Lawrence Waigi Kamau, Receiver manager for Continental Credit Finance Ltd -Patrick Ntoithi Kanyuira- who was holding on to the title deed for the said property and Lawyer David Njogu. Caption: Mortician Githu Muigai's side-kick Lawrence Waigi Kamau of the State Law Office just built a 6-storey building next to Kasarani Equity Bank that hosts Pipers lounge and Anchor hotel. Everyone has been wondering where the money was coming from. The diligent Ojode investigated and discovered that GSU only occupied 17 acres of the land.
However, the real kicker was when Ojode enquired from Francis Mburu whether there were any court cases relating to this parcel of Land, when Mburu confessed to there being a matter before Hon, Aggrey Muchelule where Mburu was claiming compensation for Ksh. 11.4B.
By this time, Orwa Ojode is scratching his head, you have a claim for 11.4B infront of the courts and now you want to claim 33.6B for the same piece of land!!!???
You will remember that Prof George Saitoti had been haunted by the ghosts of Goldenburg for many years, it was therefore with a lot of care that Orwa Ojode proposed the formation of an inter-ministerial committee to give the transaction legal grounding and to cover their arses, basically.
By this time, Survey Department had come back with more shocking evidence that the land occupied by GSU measured 17.8 acres while the vacant portion of land measured a mere 19.5 acres – therefore the total land area for the parcel was only 37.3 acres and NOT the 96 acres always being bandied around by Francis Mburu – BAM!
Always quick on his feet, Mburu quickly suggested that Government buy out the vacant 19.5 acres at a cost of Ksh. 350m per acre which would work out to Ksh. 6.8B. If Prof Saitoti accepted this valuation, he would be swung Ksh. 2.3B for his Presidential campaigns while another Ksh. 585m would go to the operatives from AG and other Government officials.
The Inter-ministerial report came from Orwa Ojode in March 2012. The whistleblower does not indicate whether the full compensation/purchase of the 19.5 acres was actually paid.
Francis Mburu, shrewd and cunning, opted to use the report of the inter-ministerial committee, several years after the deaths of both Prof Saitoti and Orwa Ojode, to file the Ksh. 141B claim against the Government.
For this claim to successfully go through the courts without the same furore that accompanies such mega-scandals, Francis Mburu filed this petition in the Environment and Lands Court, where the file was disappeared from the shelves so that it doesn’t make its way to the electronic records of the Judiciary.
Clearly, the ELC Division of the High Court is a den of thieves just like their counterparts at Ardhi House. But CJ Maraga will always come to their defense… Caption: CJ Maraga the head of a smelling, stinking and corrupt Judiciary The plan all through was to hide the file until the day of judgement and it had been colluded that the Judge would only have 2 hearings before rendering judgement in favor of Francis Mburu.
Amusingly, prior similar petition HCCC 977 of 2005 (which Orwa Ojode came to find out about by accident) for Ksh. 11B was dismissed by the Courts.
However, the same companies associated with Francis Mburu now came before the same High Court with similar petitions on the same parcel of land.
It would appear that this petition almost collapsed in 2016 with the transfer of Lady Justice Pauline Nyamweya to head Machakos Station who was joined at the hip with this conspiracy. Caption: Lady Justice Pauline Nyamweya depicts the ROT in the Judiciary. As indicated earlier in this story, Lawyer Dr. Kenneth Kiplagat and Francis Mburu fell out and their fallout had to go to courts.
It would seem that Francis Mburu had in 2015 approached Lawyer Dr. Kiplagat to ask him for a favour. He wanted Dr. Kiplagat to discreetly approach his friend Lady Justice Pauline Nyamweya and find out how much the ELC could conceivably award for a petition of Ksh. 141B.
The reply from the Lady Justice was that they could manage Ksh. 70B – Ksh. 80B otherwise the figures could draw ire from the Government side in Parliament.
In late 2015, Dr. Kiplagat asked Francis Mburu to deposit with his law firm (as per agreement) Ksh. 30m and a refund of Ksh. 2.8m that he had spent to entertain Lady Justice Pauline Nyamweya and Justice Sankale Ole Kantai in Kisii, Nairobi and Nakuru to brainstorm over the Ksh. 141B award.
When Mburu declined saying he had no money at the time, a livid Dr. Kiplagat too the matter to court and even appealed the ruling which went in favour of Mburu. Caption: Dr. Ken Kiplagat- The man who once slapped Gideon Moi Later, as is wont to happen among men, the two gentlemen patched up their differences and the matter proceeded to trial.
Would you believe that Dr. Kenneth Kiplagat, all Yale educated could have failed to see the illegality of this claim?
How can Judges of the High Court casually agree to abet the robbery of Kenyan of 10s of Billions of shillings, in a scheme conceived of by a person who is giving the devil serious competition? The man of the hour, Francis Mburu Mungai!
Do Kenyans really have any hope in the face of this reckless greed and senseless lust for money and the vanities it procures, namely, sex, wine and locomotion?
Who can hear the distant drums of a revolution…?