Mr moneybags: How the Sh500 note came to be known as Jirongo
National
By
Caleb Atemi
| Dec 15, 2025
The noise and commotion startled me. I was busy on my typewriter working on a feature article when shouting and loud arguments erupted from the reception area. Then he stomped into my office with two hefty bodyguards in tow.
“It is you that I have come to see. It is you that I have come to talk to” he told me.
“Kindly take a seat my brother. How may I help you?” I told him
“It is you who needs my help” he said, giving me a curious smile. “I am here today to liberate you from the slavery your employer has put you in. I have come to liberate you from the poverty that is eating you up” he said gently placing some papers on my desk.
I was shocked when I looked at the papers. They were my latest bank statements. When he noticed the horror on my face, he burst into laughter. He knew he had captured my attention. With my knees trembling, I sat down. I had shot up from my chair earlier when he mentioned poverty and me in the same sentence. I had lost my cool but the bank statement completely deflated me.
Cyrus Jirogo then placed a sleek, black leather briefcase on my desk and flipped it open. “My brother, all this is yours if you just resign from The Nation right now. This is 4 million shillings. Another 4 million awaits you after resignation” he told me with a wink.
To my horror, he placed in my hand not just a pen but a resignation letter, already typed out with my name on it. “All you have to do is sign it. I will hand it in for you” he said calmly.
I read through the letter. It said that I was tired of working for a: “tribal newspaper which not only fights the government of President Daniel arap Moi, but also promotes Kikuyu hegemony”
I must confess that, for some fleeting moments, my mind went wild. Here I was with a yawning bank account and heavy family responsibilities and needs weighing me down. And here I was staring at neat, crispy bank notes smiling at me. It was cash that I seriously needed.
I raised my head and looked Jirongo in the eye. “Brother, our people in Luhyia land are suffering and need this money more than I do. The Nation has its own problems but it is my father and mother. Please pick up your money and leave my office”
Fuming, he shot up from his seat, grabbed his briefcase then told me in Luhyia: “You are a fool. You will die poor.” He left in a huff. This was in May 1992. Jirongo had visited our Kisumu bureau on a mission, to destabilise the newspaper which at that time was considered an enemy of the State.
A week after my encounter with Jirongo, another Youth for Kanu 92 (YK92) operative, William Omoga, came visiting. Omoga, a smooth talking sports reporter with The Kenya Times (KT), told me: “Bwana Atemi, you are being unwise. Jirongo has been sent to you by the President himself. Resigning from The Nation will bring you great rewards and you can come join us at KT.”
Sh40,000
He then stood up and placed his right foot on my desk. “With YK, you can afford shoes like mine. You see this pair, it is worth 40,000 shillings” he said giving me a contemptuous look.
I had other countless moments with Cyrus Jirongo, some politically intimate, others socially annoying. Jirongo, who served as Lugari Member of Parliament and Cabinet minister, is most remembered as the Chairman of YK92 lobby group. This was a movement of young politicians that campaigned tooth and nail for the re-election of President Daniel arap Moi in 1992 at the dawn of multiparty elections in Kenya.
The 1992 elections were critical for Moi’s survival. His ruling party Kanu had accepted multiparty democracy at the end of 1991. On Saturday, March 7 1992, Vice President Professor George Saitoti launched the YK92 at a colourful ceremony held at Nairobi’s Nyayo Stadium. Jirongo served as the chairman while Sam Nyamweya was its treasurer. Ruto, the current President, was an active YK member mobilising support for Kanu and Moi at the grassroots.
The Opposition, on its part, had lined up strong but divided opponents to face Moi at the ballot. Opposition leaders Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, Kenneth Matiba and Mwai Kibaki had all lined up their troops against Moi.
Soon, Jirongo a great, and aggressive grassroots mobiliser, became the most “famous” man in Kenya. He was President Moi’s point man. He was loud. He was aggressive. He was abrasive and he loved whiskey. During the entire 1992 campaign period, Jirongo became the ATM machine for Kanu. He dished out money to both the low and the mighty.
Several of my media colleagues accepted the resignation letters he offered. They pocketed millions and walked away from newsrooms showing their former employer the middle finger.
Carpentry
A Kakamega based correspondent Buong Arunda, took the millions, abandoned his family and moved into a luxurious hotel where he stayed for some months, enjoying life. He eventually left journalism. I met him in 1994, during the burial of Jaramogi Oginga Odinga in Bondo township. He was trying his hand in carpentry.
One of the Nyanza correspondents took the YK money but then changed his mind. He visited me; panicky, terrified but remorseful. I told him, “You know no money is free. I will allow you back but you must go into hiding until things cool down” today, he is a senior, respected editor.
Jirongo and his team always travelled with crispy, newly printed Sh500 notes. The Sh500 denomination came to be known as Jirongo. Before it, the largest denomination in Kenya was Sh200.
The YK gave birth to a group of arrogant, untouchable politicians who raided the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), forcing it to buy land at abnormal prices. Even tinny pieces of tarmacked strips were sold for millions to the retirement fund. Jirongo, a shrewd businessman, wheeler-dealer and cunning operative, used the opportunity to do business with government. His company, Sololo Outlets, won tenders to build NSSF houses.
A Parliamentary Investments Committee report says that Jirongo sold NSSF two properties at an inflated price of Sh1.2 billion. The fund lost billions through deals linked to Jirongo. Parliament heard that Postbank Credit carried bad loans worth Sh9.2 billion, of which Sh7.4 billion was owed to Sololo Outlets. Jirongo and his YK team drained pension funds, looted parastatals and sucked blood out of State linked banks.
Mercedes Benz
Years later, Jirongo denied any involvement in the looting of the economy. He was once quoted saying that: “I was a billionaire by the age of 30. YK never made me. It destroyed me financially.”
I was not the only person Jirongo offered money to. Former Cabinet minister Shariff Nassir was one such beneficiary of Jirongo’s generosity. Nassir’s personal assistant Abdirahman Bafadhil says that his boss had asked him to organise a meeting with Jirongo soon after the March 7, 1992 launch of YK92.
Bafadhil took Nassir to Jirongo’s office at the Anniversary Towers. After the meeting, Jirongo escorted the two to the basement where Nassir had parked his aged Mercedes Benz. Upon seeing Nassir’s car, Jirongo told him: “Bwana Waziri gari hii haikufai tena wewe kama waziri (Mr Minister, this car no longer suits you”)
Jirongo quickly went back to the office and returned with a bag full of money and a note. “The note instructed DT Dobie to give waziri a brand new Mercedes Benz” Bafadhil is quoted in a June 04 2016 article by Kipchumba Some.
Jirongo undertook huge real estate and land projects which eventually landed him into serious and major legal battles with parastatals and other State agencies. What followed were years of debt recoveries and State repossessions. At one time he was actually declared bankrupt.
Jirongo borrowed heavily from Postbank Credit Limited, which collapsed in 1992. Postbank had issued billions of shillings in unsecured or improperly secured loans to politicians and the politically connected individuals.
I will never forget the night I had another encounter with Jirongo at the Kitale Club where I was with my family for December holidays. Loud knocks woke me up from my slumber. I opened the door and, lo and behold, there stood Mheshimiwa Jirongo. He was drunk and stood there swaying unsteadily on his groggy legs. He had mistaken my room for his.
Jirongo lived a fast and furious life of drinking and deal making. Most properties linked to him were either auctioned, repossessed or caught up in lengthy court battles by the time he died on Saturday.