It is often said that the road of life is never without trials and tribulations, but in the case of former MP and presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo, his tribulations appear to be piling up by the day.
The former Lugari MP spent two nights in police custody after his friend-turned-foe, Bryan Yongo had him arrested for failing pay a debt of Sh25 million.
Since his arrest on Tuesday, Mr Jirongo spent two days at Muthangari police station after failing to raise a cash bail of Sh5 million to secure his freedom.
As if that was not enough, another friend-turned-foe, Sammy Boit arap Kogo was in the court vicinity, with police officers in town, ready to pounce on him, had the court given him back his freedom.
The former legislator, who got a paltry 3,832 votes in last year’s presidential election, was whisked into police custody, until he posted cash bail of Sh5 million on Thursday afternoon, to secure his release.
Upon his release, Sports and Culture Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa tweeted thanking Deputy President (DP) William Ruto for bailing out Mr Jirongo. “Thank you your excellency for standing with our brother in his time of need. We will always remain indebted to you,” he said.
It later emerged that Devolution Cabinet Secretary Eugene Wamalwa, who was in court during the entire proceedings, deposited his Mercedes Benz logbook valued at Sh2 million as surety for the embattled politician.
A close friend Mr Jirongo who requested not to be named in this article, said that the DP gave the CS Wamalwa Sh3 million in cash to top up Mr Jirongo’s bail.
Mr Kogo was not in court on Thursday when Mr Jirongo was released, but the businessman has been pursuing the United Democratic party leader over a debt of Sh700 million.
Last year, Mr Kogo successfully sought bankruptcy order against Mr Jirongo after he failed to pay the money, but the order was set aside following an appeal by Mr Jirongo to him run in the October 26, 2017 repeat presidential elections.
Mr Kogo did not actually give Mr Jirongo cash, rather the Sh700 million debt is the value of the former’s properties which he gave to National Bank of Kenya as surety for a loan that the bank advanced to Mr Jirongo.
However, he defaulted on paying the loan forcing the bank to auction Mr Kogo’s properties in 2009. He also defaulted on his promise to pay back Mr Kogo by January 2014 forcing the businessman to file bankruptcy orders against him.
Another person pursuing Mr Jirongo over a debt is Central Organisations of Trade Unions boss Francis Atwoli, who wants to recover Sh100 million from Mr Jirongo.
The trade unionist claimed that under an agreement made in August 10, 2016, he advanced Sh100 million to Mr Jirongo, payable in 50 days, with an interest of Sh10 million.
Mr Jirongo allegedly made an undertaking on October 10,2016 admitting his indebtedness to Mr Atwoli and he promised to repay him by October 21.
“Despite demand made, Mr Jirongo has totally refused, failed and ignored to effect payment as per the terms of the agreement,” said Mr Atwoli in court papers.
CJ, as Mr Jirongo is fondly called by his friends, started making money at a very young age, primarily through real estate. His signature housing projects include Saika estate in Kayole and Hazina estate in South B, both in Nairobi.
At 32-years, he owned Cypher Projects International, which was housed at Development House and among the many persons who operated from his office then were Mr Kogo, a business associate of Gideon Moi.
When a group of young men came up with the idea of forming a youth lobby group to campaign for President Daniel arap Moi in the 1992 multi-party General Election, they naturally chose their wealthy pal Jirongo to be their chairman.
This position would bring him to national limelight, but later on became the genesis of his current financial woes when President Moi wound up the group in 1993 after winning the elections.
Youth for Kanu, 1992, commonly known as YK’92 entered Kenya’s books of infamy for their open display of ostentation, cruising around town in classy top-of the-range cars while dressed in designer suits.
It has been long rumoured, that the money YK ’92 openly dished out in their rallies had been looted from the national Treasury to fund Moi’s re-election.
A Sh500 note which was released by the Central Bank of Kenya at the peak of YK ‘92’s activities was nicknamed “Jirongo” as this was the denomination that the group handed out in their political rallies.
Mr Jirongo is a famously generous man but by the time he was seeking the presidential ticket last August, the man was a pale shadow of the millionaire he was decades ago.
The genesis of his current financial predicaments can be traced to his involvement in YK ‘92. A few months after winning the 1992 General Election, President Moi disbanded the group, calling its members a bunch of “con men.”
Mr Moi moved in to financially cripple its ambitious chairman who, by his own admission, harboured ambitions to build the group into a formidable political outfit to rival the then ruling Kanu party.
In May 1993, the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) was ordered to cancel the purchase of 500 housing units worth Sh1.2 billion at Hazina Estate from Jirongo’s company, Sololo Outlets.
In quick succession, Sololo Outlets was declared bankrupt and lawyer Mutula Kilonzo appointed the receiver. All this was exposed as government plan to nail Mr Jirongo financially after top secret documents on the plot surfaced in 2012.
Heavily in debt, friends appear to have deserted Mr Jirongo, a fact that he publicly admitted in March this year when he accompanied opposition leader Raila Odinga to a political function in Homa Bay County.
“I shall continue being close to the Luo community because even the other day, I visited Raila and told him how the top Jubilee leadership had abandoned me,” said Mr Jirongo.
Although Mr Jirongo complained of being sidelined by Jubilee, it is DP Ruto, another former member of YK ’92, with whom they have had the most bitter of public fights in recent times who came to his aid last week.
In May 2016, he linked the DP to the death of outspoken government critic Jacob Juma who was murdered by unknown people.
Mr Jirongo and the DP were once close friends, political associates and business partners before they fell out supposedly due to business rivalry.
“I acknowledge I was his junior, but why is he so chronically bitter at me?” said the DP during the funeral of former Malava MP Soita Shitanda in June 2016. “I have told him quite often, it is all about ‘kuj ipanga’ (strategy).”
Mutual friends of the two politicians say that it was Mr Jirongo, who took Mr Ruto’s hand and guided him when he was starting out in business after they became close during their time at YK ‘92. But their fortunes have since changed dramatically.
Mr Jirongo’s trouble kept piling in February this year when the Central Bank of Kenya put up for sale his 103-acre farm in Chepkoilel, near Eldoret town to recover a Sh53 million debt he owed to the collapsed Dubai Bank.
