Top lawyer recounts last moments with client Juma

By SAMWEL BORN MAINA
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 The late businessman Jacob Juma who was killed on May 6, 2016. Details between when he left his office to the time he met his death in a hail of bullets near Lenana School on Ngong Road as he drove home, however, remain hazy. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

Summary

• Other sources told Saturday Nation that after he left the Stanley, he drove to his offices near the Hungarian Embassy in Lavington where he spent most of the afternoon.
• Others who knew the deceased described him as a loyal friend and a painful thorn to those he considered his enemies.

He said that was the last time he saw the man he described as a friend and a client of five years.Mr Jacob Juma spent most of Thursday going about his businesses in town without showing any signs of stress, a close associates of his told Saturday Nation on Friday.
They said he spent the midmorning hours in lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi’s office in the central Nairobi and then went for lunch.
“He was very fine and never indicated that he was troubled. He sat in my office for close to one-and-a-half hours and they left with some of my friends for lunch at the New (sic) Stanley,” Mr Abdullahi said.
He said that was the last time he saw the man he described as a friend and a client of five years.
Other sources told Saturday Nation that after he left the Stanley, he drove to his offices near the Hungarian Embassy in Lavington where he spent most of the afternoon.
Details between when he left his office to the time he met his death in a hail of bullets near Lenana School on Ngong Road as he drove home, however, remain hazy.
“I am shocked that someone can be killed in such a macabre manner. There was no reason really for someone to kill Mr Juma,” Mr Abdullahi said.
He added his children and those of Mr Juma, a boy and girl, attended the same school. Others who knew the deceased described him as a loyal friend and a painful thorn to those he considered his enemies.
“If you were in good books with him, he could be very loyal. He adored friendship and was never a let down to us who knew him,” Mr Marosi King, a Nairobi businessman, said of Mr Juma.
Born in Bungoma County 45 years ago, Mr Juma attended the University of Nairobi. He had interests in mining and real estate.
A man who appeared to get privileged information, he was particularly ruthless in his shouting about some of the biggest controversial dealings including The Eurobond Saga and the National Youth Service scandal.
“It is shocking, that an individual who repeatedly forewarned of his own death and even named his expected assassins would not have round the clock State protection,” Mombasa Governor Ali Hassan Joho said in a statement Friday.