Tycoon and presidential aspirant Jimmy Wanjigi has spoken about his relationship with the murdered businessman Jacob Juma.
During a Sunday, August 29 interview at his Muthaiga home in Nairobi, Wanjigi referred to Juma as a friend revealing that it was the murdered businessman who drew his attention to the Eurobond scandal.
“Jacob Juma was a friend, I knew him. He brought to me a very interesting analysis of the budget books in 2014. And that was about Euro bond,” Wanjigi said,
According to Wanjigi, Juma argued that the government claimed it was borrowing Ksh300 billion domestically and it had borrowed Euro bond Ksh300 billion. That Ksh300 billion sovereign Euro bond was supposed to be the domestic borrowing and in December 2014 it had not been regularised in the books.
“The books were showing that even though the government borrowed Ksh300 billion from sovereign Euro Bond, they had also borrowed domestically from local banks. It seemed that there was double borrowing but the domestic loan had not been indicated in the books. And that is what made the Euro Bond scandal very loud. That is what Jacob Juma brought to me
“That is how the Eurobond Saga that we talk about came out. Jacob Juma was the whistle blower. And it is very sad that the media has not fully interrogated this. The Auditor General, never completed that report on a missing one billion dollars. And you have never interrogated this. One billion dollars is Ksh100 million that seems to have disappeared,” Wanjigi said.
“It was very unfortunate that he died a youngman and left two children. Very painful,” Wanjigi, who is seeking ODM ticket for 2022 presidential bid asserted.
A controversial and wealthy businessman, Jacob Juma was driving to his home when unknown gunmen attacked his car and killed him in May 2016.
Interestingly, Juma had prior to his death, said that there was a plot to kill him.
Police say nothing was stolen from Juma, who had mining and real estate interests, as two of his mobile phones were found in his car along with some cash.
Juma had successfully sued a state corporation for about $5m (£3.4m) in compensation for a breach of contract to supply 40,000 tonnes of maize in 2004.
He also took the government to court in 2015 for revoking his company’s mining license, saying this was because he had refused to pay an $800,000 bribe. The High Court dismissed the case.
