[SIZE=6]‘Lord Juma’, modern-day Robin Hood who adored class and opulence[/SIZE]
Jacob Juma’s family on Thursday showed their determination to ensure that the billionaire made his final journey the same way he had lived — in flamboyant opulence.
His body was dressed in an expensive imported Italian suit and taken to All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi in a famous hearse.
It was driven in the same Mercedes Benz limousine that carried the body of former First Lady Lucy Kibaki last week.
At his Forest View Road home in Karen that sits on 5.5 acres, workers carried on with their daily routine, watering the lawns and sprucing up the compound.
Aggrey Opanga, who has worked for the Jumas for the past 16 years, told theNation that the quickest way to make his boss mad was to fail to take care of his flowers and trees.
While his residence neighbours other affluent ones, none matches the elegance and sheer class of Juma’s homestead, named Mungore Olukuba Palace, a fortress that the self-made billionaire began building when he was only 26.
“Mungore is the name of his village where he grew up, while olukuba, among his clan, was a place where elders built a house that was surrounded by trees and a watertight fence, where they would discuss communal issues in private,” explained Peter Mukhongo, one of Juma’s closest friends and a village mate.
He made every effort to create a modernolukuba, building a mansion with five all-ensuite bedrooms, served by 10 servants and with most fittings imported from Italy, Canada and Australia.
The servants cooked for his family (Juma ate ugali for dinner everyday) and took care of the garden that has dozens of exotic flowers and trees.
But the servants did not touch his laundry.
The service was preserved for the Serena Hotel — the only facility Juma believed was capable of meeting his high standards of cleanliness.
He was a germ-phobic, neat freak who changed his carpets twice a day.
THE BREAKTHROUGH
Obsessed with security, Juma built an Administration Police post adjacent to his gate and maintained at least four guards to protect his home round the clock.
It was here that the tycoon lived with his camera-shy wife Miriam Wairimu, a former hairdresser, and their two playful children, Irene and John, for the past four years after moving in from a smaller house in Kyuna, Silver Springs.
The last-born child of the first wife of Isaiah Juma grew up in abject poverty and had often told his friends that he would rather die than become poor again.
Although his father was poor, he went on to marry three wives, with whom he sired a brood of 23 children.
Jacob Juma was only 10 when his father died.
Days after he sat his Form Four exams, Juma moved to Nairobi to live with his sister in the Kibera slums, promptly becoming a master at doing odd jobs that earned him peanuts.
His fortunes changed when he met Grace Okemo, the wife of former Cabinet minister Chris Okemo, who at the time was working at KCB.
Grace introduced him to former Lugari MP Cyrus Jirongo, then head of YK92, a Kanu youth activist group.
Their friendship quickly grew and Jirongo “adopted” Juma, whom he invited to live with his sister’s children in Ngei Estate, Lang’ata, and paid for his education at the then Kenya Polytechnic, where he studied hotel management
Juma then made enough money to move to a house in South B. He married Miriam in 1995.
In the years that followed, members of the Moi family joined his quickly expanding circle of friends, which, it is widely believed, propelled him from a poor teenager who had arrived in the city with nothing to a multimillionaire in less than a decade.
He was soon raking in millions of shillings as a contractor for houses and roads, a supplier for various government agencies and an investor in the mining industry.
‘SIMPLE LIFE’
Opposition chief Raila Odinga says he met Juma for the first time in 2003, when he was Roads minister.
Some of his business associates included businessman Jimmy Wanjigi, Grace Wakhungu, a sister of former Vice-President Moody Awori and mother of Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu, and Sirisia MP John Waluke.
Juma’s close friends say his quick riches turned him into an arrogant, violent man given to drunkenness.
He would use his connections to powerful people in government to upstage other businessmen in the country for deals.
“He could buy all the alcohol in a bar and would regularly fight revellers. When he was overpowered, he would quickly run for his gun and shoot at anyone in sight,” recalled Mukhongo, adding that he would escape prosecution by using his powerful connections.
He soon grew weary of the bar fights and gave up drinking because he no longer wanted to “get drunk, silly and beat up people”, Mukhongo added.
For a man of his stature and wealth, Juma’s life could be described as rhythmically boring.
He would start his day at 9am daily, drink his porridge at home and head to Serena Hotel for a cup of tea.
He would then head to his office in Muthangari, Nairobi. Occasionally, he played golf.
Juma used to be back at home every day between 7pm and 9pm for his dinner with his family, retiring to bed by 11pm.
He rarely entertained guests at home during weekdays but would spend most of the weekends on his lawn with close friends until evening, when he would retreat to the house to watch European football. His favourite team was Chelsea.
PEOPLE’S DEFENDER
Every Sunday morning by 9am he would go to the All Saints Cathedral Anglican Church in Nairobi and by 3pm he would be back home to watch football on television.
Away from his routine life, many viewed him as a modern-day Robin Hood who bestowed gifts of charity to many.
According to his family members, he travelled with millions of shillings in the boot of his car whenever he visited his upcountry home.
“He would give cash handouts to almost the entire village, giving men Sh500 each and women Sh1,000,” said Humphrey Oduor, who comes from his village.
He would on numerous occasions give an offering of more than Sh1 million at local churches.
At Maasai Line, where local Maasai gather to socialise, just a few kilometres from his Nairobi home, he gave out Sh2,000 to everyone who lined up when he dropped by to buy meat.
Those who called him by his treasured nickname — Lord Juma — would be given Sh10,000.
http://mobile.nation.co.ke/news/modern-day-Robin-Hood-who-adored-class-and-opulence/-/1950946/3201240/-/item/1/-/d1iady/-/index.html