Jacob Juma's lifelong flirtation with controversy

Cortec Mining Kenya Limited country Director Mr.Jacob Juma address the press at his Lavington house in Nairobi on Friday,August 09 where he said that Mining Minister Mr.Najib Balala had demanded a bribe of Shs.80 Million in order not to cancel the license issued to the firm in 2007. PHOTO:COLLINS KWEYU/STANDARD

Jacob Juma was a man of many hats who seldom hid his face behind masks.

The controversial businessman, who was painstakingly trying to carve out an image of a whistleblower, had announced to the world that his latest obsession and sole ambition in life was to reveal the architects of the controversial Eurobond saga.

But this latest war, with his history checkered with rabble-rousing, suspect dealings and numerous court cases was not to be won. At least not by him. On Thursday night, as he left Westlands for his Karen home, Jacob Juma lay dead in a pool of blood in his car on a lonely road.

The 45-year-old, who had publicly and repeatedly said his life was in danger, breathed his last as the assassins, satisfied with their latest hit, rode away into the cold drizzly night on a motorcycle, leaving Juma to die as he had lived - in the full embrace of controversy.

But Juma had seen it coming. The wheeler-dealer, fixer and broker, whose reputation had survived several administrations, had on his social media platforms alleged an assassination plot by friends-turned-enemies, among them top Jubilee officials.

“I will not fear death and stay in my comfort zone as majority of Kenyans suffer...” read part of a tweet Juma posted on March 25.

Death was something he evoked often. And more recently, murder.

“High voltage intelligence reports reaching me is that Jubilee leaders have hatched a plot to assassinate me over my stand on corruption in gov’t. The leaders are so worried about Eurobond revelations and the confidential details that I have on the heist and corruption perpetuated by Jubilee government,” he said in a Facebook post.

“They are using a police officer to portray me as a person involved in land disputes to cover up murder. The scheme is well choreographed like that of the late Hon. Muchai who was murdered in cold blood and they used land issues to cover it up.”

Before he met his death, Juma bruised many egos and made many friends and foes on his way up the social ladder. Some of his business dealings with government or state agencies often ended up in court. He was either being sued or suing. In both cases, the sums of money involved were huge.

In 2013, Juma captured the imagination of a nation when he threatened to auction assets of the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB), the organisation that manages the country’s strategic grain reserve.  This dispute over a multi-million shilling debt, which would have potentially put the country’s food security at risk, revolved around a 2004 contract that Juma claimed NCPB had terminated unprocedurally, forcing him and his company, Erad, to incur losses.

“We are now set to enforce a court decree to dispose of NCPB’s assets arising from the breach of a maize supply contract,” Juma, then a director of Erad Supplies and General Contractors Ltd, said at a July 2013 Public Investments Committee (PIC) sitting.

At the hearing, Juma said he had attached NCPB’s assets worth Sh297 million, sold two vehicles and was holding five others.

NCPB entered into a maize supply contract with five companies to import 180,000 tonnes of maize to meet the country’s food needs during the 2004 famine. Erad, one of the firms, however, failed to deliver the maize, leading to termination of the contract.

Business associates

The firm moved to an arbitrator and was awarded Sh564 million for breach of contract, but NCPB contested the decision in the High Court.

Still at the PIC hearing, Juma said the matter had been heard by nine judges who threw out NCPB’s case and upheld its claim for storage charges and loss of revenue anticipated from the maize supply.

Had he succeeded, he would probably have brought operations at the country’s strategic grain reserves unit to a halt, exposing the nation to uncertainty over its food security.

The cereals saga had its own collateral. In it, the country got introduced to Juma’s closest business associates through claims, counter-claims and lawsuits that followed the collapse of the deal, exposing the drama in his love-hate relationship with former business acquaintances.

In November 2014, his once close confidant and debt collector Brian Yongo was arrested after allegedly threatening to kill him. Juma had recorded a statement saying his life was in danger. Details later emerged that the push and pull between the two might have been as a result of a deal gone sour.

The two were also part of one of the country’s most convoluted lawsuits which sucked in another protagonist, vocal lawyer Ahmednassir Abdulahi.

In June 2013, Yongo wrote a letter to National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi seeking his help in ousting Ahmednassir from the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). In his letter, Yongo claimed to have introduced Juma to Ahmednassir for representation in the NCPB case.

“It was agreed amongst Ahmednassir, Juma and I that our total consideration would be Sh50 million to be shared equally,” stated Yongo in an affidavit at the time. He claimed Ahmednassir subsequently refused to pay him his share.

Yongo has since distanced himself from many of the allegations he made against both Juma and Ahmednassir during that period. One of which was the authenticity of Ahmednassir’s academic qualifications.

The three continued to enjoy a love-hate relationship, particularly on social media, where they sparred over each other’s involvement in various big money corruption allegations. Most of these allegations came to light as the Jubilee administration took over.

Mining licences

One of them was the controversial awarding and later revocation of a mining licence to Cortec Mining, a company associated with Juma, that led to the loss of a lucrative mining concession in the South Coast.

As the country prepared for the 2013 elections, Juma and his associates were pushing for the mining licence for minerals so rare, few had even ever heard of them. On March 26, 2013, when the country was unquestionably glued to the proceedings at the Supreme Court over CORD’s election petition, Cortec was at the department of Mines and Geology collecting its mining licence. This happened in spite of a caveat by the new President. Weeks earlier, President Uhuru Kenyatta had ordered a freeze on any contract or licence approvals on behalf of the incoming Jubilee government.

Juma owned 30 per cent of Cortec Mining Kenya, a subsidiary of Canadian Pacific Wildcat Resources (PAW), a mineral exploration company. Cortec was among 31 mining firms whose licences were revoked by the then Mining Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala.

A few days prior to this cancellation, Cortec had announced the discovery of niobium and rare earths minerals whose value the company estimated to be more than Sh51.2 trillion.

The cancellation did not go down well with Juma and he launched a tirade of attacks against the Cabinet Secretary. He claimed that Balala cancelled Cortec’s license because he refused to part with a Sh100 million bribe. Balala refuted the allegations and the revocation stood.

Juma seemed almost obsessive in calling out former associates and business partners. For instance, both Juma and Deputy President William Ruto served in the infamous Youth for Kanu 92 (YK’92), a notorious group of up and coming young men who had the President’s ear and enforced the then ruling party’s mantra. Juma had formed a habit of calling out Ruto with little regard to protocol.

Last year, when pupils of Langata Primary School were teargassed by anti-riot policemen during a protest to reclaim part of their playground, Juma quickly jumped into the fray and accused Ruto of grabbing the school’s playground. He proceeded to file a petition in court in March 2015 challenging the legality through which Weston Hotel, which belongs to the Deputy President, acquired the piece of land in which it is built.

Pending cases

“The petitioner avers that the allotment and registration of the suit land to the first and second respondents was done in breach of public trust, the Constitution and the law,” Juma said in his filings.

He also alleged that the land was transferred to Weston Hotel on June 13, 2007 and that the title deed should have been issued to the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to safeguard ownership.

Juma attached letters from then Transport PS, Francis Muthaura, and his successor, Sammy Kyungu, warning that private developers were eyeing the property on which Weston currently sits.

He later alleged that the Deputy President was involved in yet another plot to defraud Kenyans off funds to refurbish the Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret.

In February 2015, Juma wrote to the Ethics and Anti Corruption Authority (EACC) asking them to recover more than Sh700 million from the Deputy President.

In his letter, the businessman claimed that the DP allegedly received money for selling a parcel of land in Ngong Forest to the Kenya Pipeline Company (KPC). Ruto and two others were in 2003 charged with fraud over the same matter. They were, however, acquitted for lack of evidence. The case collapsed when the prosecution’s key witness Hellen Njue, KPC’s chief finance manager, failed to appear in court and testify.

According to Juma, the payment made by KPC, amounting to Sh272 million, should be recovered plus interest accrued over the years, pushing the total figure to, according to him, Sh728 million.

At the time of his death, he had numerous other matters pending before court.

It was never in doubt that Jacob Juma, the businessman who once said he couldn’t quantify his wealth, had made many connections. But as the years progressed, one got the impression that not all these connections were friendly.