Had the planned auction of the Jubilee party headquarters building not surfaced, this story would have no historical basis.
Few people know the story of the late Joseph Kiarie Mbugua, the Kiambu billionaire whose fortunes seem to have started to nosedive – if they haven’t already. Mbugua’s family owns the Jubilee Party building.
Once described by Justice Msagha Mbogoli as “shifty and cunning”, the Mbugua of the 1970s up to 90s was one man nobody wanted to cross his path. He had coffee. He had money. And walked around with a gun.
When I first met him as a young reporter, he was armed.
“Let’s go,” he commanded in a rather intimidating tone. We drove in his Pajero to his coffee factory in Kiambu.
He had stockpiled several tonnes of coffee worth millions of shillings – hoping the market would improve, according to the tale he told me.
He also spun another story that it was a protest against Coffee Board of Kenya, the epicentre of coffee scandals.
I came to learn later, and from records, that Mbugua had taken Sh75 million from the Kenya Planters Coffee Union (KPCU) miller and was one of the tycoons who did not want to repay the debt.
With such coffee, demands for payments and incessant land scandals, the gun came in handy. Some peers nicknamed him Kiarie “Muici” which literary meant – Kiarie the thief.
Kiarie spoke like a bully. He also ran a successful transport business, Karura Quick Transport and had a tea estate in Kiambu. To his admirers, even in his Ndumberi backyard, he was simply Kiarie wa Njoki.
At the same time, at one point, he took a loan with an alias Kiarie Kamwana. It means Kiarie the young man. The challenge on his sincerity and integrity was epic.
For instance, when he bought the 172 acres from a Mrs Beatrice Holyoak in 1977, the two had agreed that the Sh1.4 million sale would not include some 10 acres and the farm house.
Mbugua named the new coffee farm Mawara Coffee Estate, perhaps with a reason. Mawara means trickeries, or better still mischief or dishonesties. Shortly after conclusion of that sale, Mawara Coffee Estate limited wrote a letter to Mrs Holyoak.
It said in part: "Your large house plus 10 acres surrounding it will be registered separately in your name with new title deeds, which I will arrange, providing that should you ever in the future, wish to sell the property out of your family, I will be given the first refusal to buy."
Interestingly, both shared the same advocate, Lilian Mwaura, who prepared the sale agreement and the conveyance dated July 17, 1977.
"The right of the vendor to occupy and enjoy the use of the dwelling house and premises thereon" was one of the conditions agreed upon. Six months after the sale agreement, Mrs Holyoak wrote to remind Mr Mbugua about the subdivision as agreed.
“Macwatt Estates would like the above piece of property surveyed so that it can have its 10 acres as agreed before,” said the letter.
“With your permission Macwatt Estates is willing to bring its surveyor. We hope you will co-operate in this matter in order to finish quickly.” That never happened.
Interestingly, Mbugua never included the excision of the 10 acres in the conveyance. More so, since Mr Mbugua now had secured the title for the whole land, it would have required the Kiambu Land Board's consent to transfer the 10 acres.
It now appears that Mr Mbugua played tricks on Mrs Holyaok. After six years, there was no chance of enforcing the contract after a hide-and-seek game.
"The first time the plaintiff ought to have known that the defendant was out to breach the same was when Mbugua made no response to the lawyer's letter of January, 1978,” said Justice Mbogoli.
The judge wondered why Mrs Holyoak’s company, Macwatt Estate Limited, waited until 1992 “way out of time” to file the case.
Perhaps what was not said was that Mrs Holyoak had died in 1986 and Mrs Allison Mathilde Janss had taken over the company. Mrs Janns, a director, decided to pursue the property and the judge found that she was truthful.
“I have watched Mrs Jauss give evidence. I have no doubt that she was honest and truthful. Mr Mbugua on the other hand was shifty and cunning. Whatever the assessment however, this is a case where the plaintiff is a victim of negligence on the part of the lawyers who handled the transaction and the law on the other side,” said Justice Mbogoli.
There was little he could do. However, the law was on Mr Mbugua’s side and he walked away with 10 acres and a farm-house without paying a dime.
In 1986, Mbugua’s company – Mbwanji Limited – approached National Cereals and Produce and he received Sh13 million worth of maize. However, it took a court order to have him pay several years later.
But the most interesting was how he attempted to con some two members of the Kiambu Ting’ang’a Land Buying Company of their land in Nairobi’s Githurai. The two had approached Mr Mbugua requesting him to introduce them to an architect to draw up plans for constructing a petrol station in Githurai.
Mr Mbugua asked them to submit the title in respect of Nairobi Block 119/578 to him which they did. He then applied to the Registrar of Lands for a new title deed.
Mr Mbugua then fraudulently transferred the land to himself – and as the owners tried to recover the property, he pulled out a gun. They never again tried to confront him or pursue the matter. They did not go to court, either, after he challenged them to "try".
By the time he died in December 2006, Mr Mbugua was still occupying the property where he had built a petrol station in Githurai. He also got compensated after part of the land was hived during the construction of Thika Road.
It was only after the two owners filed a case – way outside the time – that it emerged that Mr Mbugua had forged a sale agreement.
Mr Mbugua’s widow, Florence Wairimu Mbugua, was left to handle the succession mess. She told the court that she believed Mr Mbugua had a clean title – though she had no records on the transactions.
To cut a long story short, in 2018, Justice Kossy Bor ordered the Mbugua family to vacate the land and declared that the same was “illegally and fraudulently” acquired.
During the Kanu days, some barons lined up at the National Bank of Kenya for loans they never intended to pay. Mr Mbugua was part of this racket. In 2003, as the new managers caught up with Mr Mbugua, they demanded Sh700 million which was now part of the bank’s bad debts.
Mr Mbugua agreed to pay Sh400,000 a month but after two payments – he started filing cases in court to stop the bank from auctioning his properties. In one of the agreements, he had told the bank that he would sell his 70-acre farm in Kamiti.
After subdividing the land, Mr Mbugua sent an interesting request letter to the bank: "Would you like us to give you these plots so that you can sell yourselves, or would you like them in form of money or what would you like?" It was a mischievous question.
The courts got tired: “It seems to me from their conduct that [Mr Mbugua and his companies] cannot be trusted to keep their word as they don’t seem to be serious about honouring their undertakings. To allow them to hold the defendant bank to its word while at the same time they can’t keep their side of the bargain would be akin to allowing them to blow hot and cold. It would be inequitable.”
There are many such cases that litter the court files with either Mr Mbugua or his companies – Farmers Industry Limited and Mbwanji Limited engaging in underhand deals or caught up in bad debts.
The latest was the development of Pangani building which houses the Jubilee Party headquarters. Mbugua used to own some properties there which were also controversial. His company took a CFC loan which ended up with tales and drama.
And now, it appears that the banks have caught up with his estate and want to sell one of their flagship properties – The Jubilee Party headquarters.
