Cyrus Jirongo: Brilliant man who lived for politics, money and all the fine things in life

Cyrus Jirongo among Western region politicians in a past function.[FILE,Standard]

Cyrus Shakhalaga Khwa Jirongo lived and enjoyed life to the fullest.

A brilliant and talented man as can be attested by those who interacted with him, Jirongo spent money faster than he made it, was generous to a fault and loved his whiskey, in the beautiful company of the fair sex.

In the early 2000s Jirongo had two palatial houses in Nyari estate, Nairobi. One house was led by one of his wives and all his girls lived there. The other house, also led by a wife, had all the boys living under one roof.

“The children would meet during family functions, play together, visit each other and they generally blended well,” says Sam Maina, who grew up in the same estate as Jirongo.

“As a teenager, Jirongo was a man we all held in awe. He would come to his sons’ house and jokingly mock us, asking why we young men were seated in a group in the living room watching television. He would tell us to go mingle with the opposite gender and many times, he would fork out a few thousands of shillings for us.

“It didn’t matter whether he knew you or not. All that mattered was that you were his sons’ friends and you lived in the same estates. That’s the money we would used to go to the nearby Gachie shopping centre and confuse girls there,” recalls Maina. 

Maina recalls that when Jirongo’s first born son was away at university in Australia, times were tough because there was no reason to visit Jirongo’s house, hence no chance of bumping into him and getting a fistful of thousands to impress girls. 

The late former Cabinet Minister Cyrus Jirongo. [File, Standard]

This writer recalls an occasion where, together with a group of young men fresh off high school, in mid-morning hours,  they went to drink cheap muratina in Gachie and when staggering home, decided to pass through a piece of land that hadn’t been built on. The route to the estate through the main road was too long and the shortcut seemed enticing.

“The plot’s caretaker refused to allow us through and a fight ensued. Five young men against a middle-aged caretaker. We beat him and trespassed through the shortcut towards the estate. The angry caretaker immediately went to Nyari Police Post and filed a complaint,” recalls Maina, who was part of the group.

The police caught up with the young men as they staggered their drunken way slowly into the estate and they were all arrested and locked up at the station.

“The police said we would only be released if a parent came to the station. No one wanted to call their parents since all were extremely strict. Some of the parents would have even let you sleep inside the cell to teach you a lesson.

“That’s when one of us thought about calling Jirongo, even though his son wasn’t with us in the mess. He didn’t pick but eventually called back. We introduced ourselves, he gave us a tongue lashing, then spoke to the officer in charge and we were released after five hours in the cells,” said Maina, who remembers Jirongo’s generosity.

“If at any point you found him home, you were sure to come out with something. He didn’t spoil his children, took them all to expensive international schools, and they had two vans that used to pick and drop the children from Nyari to school and back daily.” 

Lawyer Kamotho Waiganjo remembers Jirongo fondly. “In 1992 as a young employed lawyer, I was doing some work for Jirongo over the December break. He somehow found out that I had worked over Christmas to finalise his work.

“On  December 27, he personally looked for me, found out where I stayed in a flat in Nairobi West and gave me a personal gift of Sh100,000. That would be equivalent to more than Sh1 million today. He didn’t have to. He was paying fees to the law firm. I was overwhelmed. There was a side to Jirongo that many did not know. I mourn the man and pray that he found God before he left us.”

Despite being riddled with bankruptcy cases, Jirongo was a wealthy man by all standards. In January 2017, Central Organisation of Trade Unions Secretary-General Francis Atwoli sued Jirongo over a Sh110 million debt. Atwoil claimed that in October 2016, Jirongo had asked him for a ‘soft loan’ of Sh100 million, which he was to pay in 50 days, with a 10 per cent interest. Atwoli sued and asked the court to compel Jirongo to pay him back the money. 

A man who loved life and the pleasures it offered, Jirongo for the longest time hired an apartment hotel at Waridi Paradise in Hurlingham, forking out Sh240,000 every month. The apartment hotel was his ‘man cave’ where he would entertain women of all shapes, sizes, colours and ethnicities.

When he met this writer in 2016, one of the women had complained about unfulfilled promises Jirongo had made to her. “She is impatient. I told her to wait and I will sort her out,” said Jirongo, who went ahead to give permission for the girl’s story to be told.

“She is busy on Facebook writing about me. Why can’t she just go to the newspapers and get nationwide reach?” asked Jirongo. This writer interviewed the girl, Elvyna Lusaria, who was complaining about unpaid services.

On January 15, 1996, when Lusaria was born, Jirongo was already a 35-year-old multi-millionaire who was eyeing the Lugari Constituency parliamentary seat.

Then 21 years old, Lusaria accused the then 55-year-old Jirongo of luring her into bed, after promising to pay fees for her tertiary education, a promise that ended in the morning when they woke up.

“I was given Jirongo’s number by a friend who said he might help pay my university fees. I sent him a text and he asked me to meet him in Nairobi,” narrated Lusaria.

She says Jirongo then gave her Sh30,000 to go pay for an apartment where she would spend the night.

“I paid and he came to my room, saying he wanted to see how good it was. That’s when he started touching me, and promised me Sh200,000 for my university fees. I was drunk, I obliged and spent two nights with him.

From there, things went downhill. As Lusaria was expecting Sh200,000 for her fees, Jirongo said he would only send Sh12,000. The two furiously exchanged angry text messages.

“Ulikuwa unanipromise na huwezi nisaidia seriously?” asked an angry Lusaria. Jirongo immediately responded, “If you start that way even the Sh200,000 you’ll not get. I thought you were mature.”

He sent another text, “You’ll lose if you don’t listen to what I tell you. The least I want is a friend who doesn’t listen and uses such bad language as you just did in one of your SMSs,” said Jirongo, responding to a profanity-laced text the young lady had sent him.

Lusaira fired another salvo, “I am trying to be good but you don’t see. How much did we agree you were to send me? You know you are my grandfather.” To which Jirongo retorted, “The price of a grandfather is 200k?” Edward Indakwa remembers Jirongo as a level-headed politician who, during the heated period of the 2007 post-election violence, was the voice of reason.

“At the height of the post-election violence in 2007/08, Jirongo flew to his Lugari constituency to protect Agikuyu settlers. I recall him saying a Mzee Mwaura or something was technically his “father” because he [Jirongo] would drop an egg or two at the old man’s duka in exchange for an exercise book, a pen... in his estimation, he said, he wouldn’t have gone to school without that shopkeeper, who didn’t need the eggs anyway.

“Why then do we want to burn his shop and kill him?”

This act of humanity and common sense stood out because at the time, politicians across the country were inciting people to kick “outsiders” out.

The late former Cabinet Minister Cyrus Jirongo addressing Lugari residents during the 2022 election campaigns. [File, Standard]

“It’s been 17 years since I watched that press conference. Jirongo will be remembered for many things. That press conference is my enduring image of the man,” says Indakwa.

In one interview, Jirongo said he was a billionaire by the time he was 30 years old. So generous was Jirongo that at one time, after a visit by former Cabinet minister Shariff Nassir, Jirongo walked him to the car park only to discover the minister was driving an old Mercedes. He immediately wrote a note to DT Dobie, asking them to give Nassir a brand new car.

YK’92, an outfit that was led by Jirongo to ensure the Kanu government won elections, is known for liberally dishing out huge sums of money in the form of newly minted, crispy Sh500 notes. Back then, the largest denomination in the country was the Sh200 note and the new note was nicknamed ‘Jirongo’.

In an interview, Jirongo said the first funding for YK’92 was Sh3 million, about Sh30 million today adjusted to inflation, which came from him and five other friends. He said that the group raised around Sh300 million for their campaigns. Adjusted for inflation, this would be equivalent to Sh1.2 billion today.

A wealthy man, Jirongo, is associated with Nairobi’s Saika Estate near Komarock-Kayole, Hazina Estate in South B and Kemri Estate on Mbagathi Road.

“I was a billionaire by the age of 30. YK’92 never made me; it destroyed me financially,” Jirongo said.

Jirongo had in recent years, been dabbling in carbon credits, pushing for African countries to dictate the terms of the trade of its carbon resources in the industry that has been gaining momentum, albeit slowly.

Through his firm Shiftings Ltd, Jirongo had been trying to work with different governments in the region to ascertain the value of their carbon sinks, which would enable them to move forward and the value of the environmental assets.

The firm had entered into agreements with different governments to determine the value of such assets, which he argued would help countries make more informed choices when getting into carbon deals with both multinationals. 

In a past interview with The Standard, Jirongo had noted a major challenge with many African countries was that they were rushing to sign deals with buyers of carbon credits without knowing their worth, ending up with contracts skewed in favour of the buyers.

The firm had signed agreements with Uganda and the DR Congo. He had said discussions were ongoing with other countries in the region. 

Jirongo’s Shiftings Ltd has been working with China’s  Luokong Technology Corporation, which provided technology and expertise in mapping out the resources.

“In Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and a number of the countries we are in talks with, we will work to determine the value of these resources so that the countries can trade from a point of knowledge,” he said, further explaining that his firm would record “carbon assets belonging to a country in a national carbon asset register. This ensures accountability and transparency, directly benefiting the Congolese people.”

He would occasionally joke about carbon trading as a “business of selling air” but also immediately follow this up with a sombre, serious take, noting that the carbon sinks in Africa are a resource that must be leveraged for the benefit of its people and that Africans should firmly be in charge of the sale of carbon credits.

Though his venture in climate change was still at its nascent stage, Jirongo saw immense potential and held that carbon markets can be a powerful financial mechanism to bridge the significant climate finance gap in Africa, turning climate challenges into economic opportunities.

[Additional reporting by Macharia Kamau]