One of the late senator Mutula Kilonzo's home's at his Kwa Kyelu ranch in Machakos. Photo/JENNIFER MUIRURI
NATION
By EMEKA-MAYAKA GEKARA gmayaka@ke.nationmedia.com and BOB ODALO
Posted Saturday, May 4 2013 at 20:21
Posted Saturday, May 4 2013 at 20:21
Although modern technology has rendered the
typewriter irrelevant, the lawyer had no intention of selling or
donating either item.
“They helped me make millions of shillings that I
have invested in property throughout the country,” he once said in an
interview.
Mr Kilonzo, who died in mysterious circumstances
last week, was referring to the equipment which he used to make his
first million as a young lawyer more than three decades ago.
But this was just one of Mr Kilonzo’s well-kept
assets which, in one way or another, could provide clues to the man’s
long journey to acquire property, much of which only he knew about.
A long-time family friend who cannot be named
discussing the departed Senator’s family issues told the Sunday Nation
that because of Mr Kilonzo’s secretive nature, it might be difficult for
anybody — including family members — to trace and quantify all his
property, believed to be worth billions of shillings.
There are some details which Mr Kilonzo kept to himself.
A clear example, he said, was the contents of a cabinet at his Ngong Road office which only he opened and had a key.
“Yeye peke yake ndiye alikuwa na ufunguo wa hiyo
kabati. Tunafikiria ilikuwa na siri zake. (He was the only one who had
the key. We suspect it contains his innermost secrets),” said the friend
who has known the family for decades.
Mr Kilonzo divorced his first wife — the mother of
Wanza and lawyers Kethi and Mutula Kilonzo Junior — in a landmark court
case which remains a reference point for students of family law and
married the second wife, Nduku, with whom they had four children.
One of them, Muathi Kilonzo, is a London-based
financial expert who helped scout for the British pathologist who flew
into Nairobi to investigate the cause of the Senator’s death.
The other, Michael Musembi, runs the family’s
Tracom business college in Nakuru while Mutune works in Nairobi and
Musau in London.
Divorce case
After the divorce case in which he was represented
by former electoral commission chief Samuel Kivuitu, the lawyer cut off
links with the first wife who lives in Nairobi’s Riara estate.
Mr Kilonzo kept his family life separate from his
official engagements. Our source said his wife hardly ever stepped in
his office or the Kwa Kyelu ranch where he died.
At the ranch, where he spent most weekends, he was known to entertain guests, some of whom stayed overnight.
According to our source, Mr Kilonzo had over 50 companies with Nduku recorded as a co-director, probably without her knowledge.
He lived a life of grandeur, maintained expensive
tastes — like top-of-the-range cars — and had a lasting love for things
rustic. Many of his close friends could not disguise the fact that he
loved the good life and had a soft spot for members of the opposite sex.
His taste for the finer things in life was manifested in the
magnificent Valhalla home in Maanzoni and at the Kilonzo and Company
offices premises on Ngong Road.
In Scandinavian mythology, Valhalla is a hall in
which heroes killed in battle were believed to feast with Odin for
eternity. (Odin was the supreme god and creator, god of victory and the
dead.
Wednesday is named after him).
It was a special place. And perhaps in estimation
of this, Mr Kilonzo’s Valhalla home was largely out of bounds for the
rest of his family.
“It was his hideaway. Not even his wife and
children went there. It was his retreat where he spent weekends and
rested, away from the rest the world,” said the friend.
And yet for all his grandeur and the cash he
splashed, Mr Kilonzo never received a salary. In all the 10 years he
served as an MP and Cabinet minister, he never took a cent home.
The Kenya Revenue Authority recovered an estimated Sh120 million from Mr Kilonzo over a Moi-era tax demand.
And up until last year, the battle for the taxes of the maverick senior counsel was still on-going.
The rumour mills were always awash with
sensational estimates of the actual amount that he owed the taxman and,
depending on who you listened to, this was said to be anywhere between
Sh300 million and Sh800 million.
Whether these hundreds of millions represented the
principal amounts or included accrued interest remains unknown. But Mr
Kilonzo acknowledged that he was carrying a huge tax burden.
In an interview with Capital FM in February last year, he mused about his tax burden.
In an interview with Capital FM in February last year, he mused about his tax burden.
“I’m actually paying my taxes and my salary has
been attached. I would even expect you to donate something to me now
that you know I haven’t earned a single cent from Parliament for the
past eight years,” he said.
“Can you just calculate for me how much income one would have made to deserve paying Sh350 million as tax?” he was asked.
Fabulously wealthy
He never confirmed what the actual figure was but the staggering tax amount points to how fabulously wealthy he was.
But, despite this, a close political ally and
lawyer told the Sunday Nation that Mr Kilonzo always collected Sh200,000
from his law firm every Friday before heading out of town.
Although not known for his generosity —
journalists would tell you that they didn’t consider him highly in that
regard though he was a great news source — those close to him say he
surrounded himself with cabinets full of money in his offices and homes
(probably a habit picked up from retired President Moi, his mentor and
long-term client).
When a Sunday Nation team visited his Valhalla
home in December 2010, Mr Kilonzo said he spent Sh700,000 a month to
feed his three lions – Mutula, Nduku and Sis — that he had adopted from
the Kenya Wildlife Service. In fact, KWS had appointed him a warden so
he could keep the animals.
He would later add two cheetahs – Mutula and Ocampo — and the costs could only have gone higher.
In addition, Mr Kilonzo kept at least three buffaloes, a wild
pig named Mutula, more than 1,200 leopard tortoises, Ferret monkeys,
Thompson’s gazelles, zebras, giraffes and elands. He also reared camels,
beef and dairy cattle and goats. He was also a beekeeper besides
engaging in greenhouse farming and rearing fish.
He told our team that the ranch actually belonged
to Mwaki Foundation which he said he founded in 2007 for his
philanthropic efforts. Mwaki is Kamba for a builder.
On the foundation’s website, the Kwa Kyelu Ranch
falls under the foundation but there is no mention of the Valhalla
home, which is also on the ranch.
This points to the possibility of layers of trusts
and companies that might actually hold what is his real wealth. He is
reported to own other ranches and farms elsewhere in Machakos, Makueni
and Nakuru where he bought land initially belonging to the Kenyatta
family, in addition to homes in Nairobi and Mombasa.
The Maanzoni ranch is named on the Mwaki
Foundation website as a “wildlife rescue centre under the auspices of
Mwaki Foundation, a charitable institution. It houses animals that are
endangered or injured.”
The sanctuary welcomes tourists to enjoy the day
and spend the night at cottages which are all self-contained from prices
that start at Sh2,500 a night. “In the cottages, you get to do your own
cooking from already equipped and stocked kitchen with gas and
refrigerator plus utensils with provisions from a canteen located a few
metres away.
Conserve nature
“I’m building the cottages because I want more and
more people to come and see how we can conserve nature,” Mr Kilonzo
said in December 2010. “For school groups or churches they can come and
tour for free as long as it is arranged. The country has to understand
the value of conserving our heritage.”
The family agreed on Friday to bury the Senator in
his home in Mbooni, next to his grandmother whom he proudly called
‘susu’ (granny), according to his Will.
Mr Kilonzo loved his grandmother even in her death and he kept her memory alive.
One of his buildings in Machakos town is named
“Susu Centre” while, in his Nakuru farm, one of the products is called
“Susu Ghee”.
Mr Kilonzo heavily invested in land. Apart from
the 1,500 acres Kwa Kyelu ranch, he had a similar ranch in his Mbooni
home and a huge agricultural tract of land measuring hundreds of
hectares in Nakuru.
He owned several buildings in Machakos town, among
them the Susu Centre where his private office was designed in a way
that when he sat in his chair, he had a view of his former school —
Machakos Boys.
“It reminds me of many things; the boyhood things”, he once told this writer.
But it is at the Kyumbi trading centre on the Machakos junction near the Kwa Kyelu ranch that he had bought numerous plots.
A lot has been written about his work ethic,
especially his punctuality and discipline. A lawyer who once worked for
him revealed that Mr Kilonzo always arrived in the office at exactly 7
am and never allowed any of his workers to stay in the office after 5
pm.
“He would remain in the office up to 8 pm but did
not entertain any of us after five. He would order you to leave if he
found you there.”
A slave of time, the veteran lawyer had a habit
that remains a challenge to many professionals today. Besides meetings,
one of the biggest sources of headache for the office worker is
correspondence — prompt communication of decisions, replying to mail and
all.
Mr Kilonzo replied to every letter addressed to him, regardless of value or importance.
“If he had no position over the subject matter, he would at least acknowledge receipt,” the lawyer said.
A proud father and respector of the written word,
Mr Kilonzo wrote letters to his children, Kethi and Kilonzo Junior, when
they were admitted to the Bar.
“Welcome to the club of lawyers. But I will remain
the chairman, secretary and treasurer of this law firm,” he wrote to
them making reference to his Kilonzo and Company advocates.
Kethi won the admiration of many Kenyans when she
appeared before the Supreme Court last month and calmly but
authoritatively made her case during the presidential election petition.
Mr Kilonzo believed that without financial
independence, one cannot be an independent and professional lawyer. He
argued that you’d rather have one case and do it properly than many and
handle them shoddily.
Mr Kilonzo never discussed salaries for lawyers who worked for him. Their pay was determined by the amount of work they did.
He would take leave in August.
He would take leave in August.
“That time he will not step in the office. He
will not take calls even if he was required to handle a
multi-million-shilling client,” said a lawyer who once worked with him.
Ruthless man
But the good-humour masked a ruthless man who could do everything in defence of Moi.
During his hey-day, some of his best friends
included former Cabinet minister Franklin Bett and lawyers Maxwell
Ombogo and Simon Mauncho. Mr Kilonzo was introduced to Moi by Kanu
stalwart Hosea Kiplagat.
His close links to power and good fortune are also
attributable to his connections with former Intelligence chief William
Kivuvani.
He was keen to cut the image of a champion of the
rule of law, due process, justice and fair play but critics say Mr
Kilonzo’s history shows a ruthless main whose conduct contradicted the
principles he purported to advocate.
He wore the hypocritical mask very carefully. He
could contravene the very principles he purported to cherish in defence
of Moi. His tactics included intimidation, blackmail or having his
victims sacked.
Two Seniour Counsel who are familiar with his
conduct and influence over the years say he engineered the removal of
some judges who made decisions that were unfavourable to the Moi regime.
Two of them — Ghananian Edward Torgbor and Briton
J.A. Couldrey — had their contracts terminated after ruling that a 1992
election petition against President Moi by Ford Asili’s Kenneth Matiba
was validly filed.
The bone of contention was that Mr Matiba’s
petition was signed by his wife, Edith, because he was ailing. Moi’s
lawyers argued that such was improper and asked the High Court to
dismiss the petition.
But the judges were not persuaded by the argument and declared that the case could go on.
Favoured Moi
However, the Court of Appeal, comprising among
others Judge Riaga Omollo, who has been accused of favouring Moi,
quashed the decision.
Shortly after, the government declined to renew the judges’ contracts.
It is instructive that then Head of Civil Service
and Secretary to the Cabinet Joseph arap Letting wrote to Justice
Torgbor ahead of the expiry of his contract advising him that the
government would not be renewing it.
“Mr Kilonzo was key in the move,” says the top lawyer.
“I saw correspondence in which he was advising Moi
that the foreign judges were working in cahoots with the Opposition to
bring down his government.”
Another confidant told Sunday Nation how Mr
Mutula, at one point, used the state agencies to scuttle former Lugari
MP Cyrus Jirongo’s Sololo/NSSF deal over Hazina Estate.
Mr Kilonzo, who was acting on behalf of a group of
politicians led by former VP George Saitoti, felt that Mr Jirongo,
then chairman of the Youth for Kanu lobby group, was pushing for
appointment of a different politician to the position.
YK’92 boss
They them came up with a strategy to cut him to
size, by frustrating his business interests, including cautioning
lenders against him as well as projecting the former YK’92 boss as a
threat to national security. Government agencies such as the Special
Branch, the Lands Office, the Registrar of Companies and the Criminal
Investigations Department were drawn into the matter.
In a June 16, 1993 secret letter, Mr Kilonzo
asked then head of Public Service Philip Mbithi to order the CID to
“induce/seduce Jirongo to surrender title deeds, and log books and to
ask the Special Branch to mount detailed surveillance on Jirongo and
associates to ascertain whether they are a threat to State security as a
result of the massive cash believed to be in his possession.”
Officials who declined to be involved in the matter were removed or transferred.
Mr Jirongo had borrowed from the NSSF and PostBank
to build the Sh1.2 billion Hazina Estate but the Mutula group was
working to ensure the lenders withdrew from the deal. They succeeded but
a protracted legal battle saw the property returned to Mr Jirongo early
last year.
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