Raphael Tuju
I remember Tuju for many things, and I’ll list them here, starting with the most important.
Not many people know that the two people who played the biggest role in trying to have Raila sworn in in 2022 were Raphael Tuju and George Kinoti (people closest to Raila were busy eating agents’ money and making midnight deals with Ruto). Tuju was at Bomas, day and night, for that entire extended period. He was on Chebukati’s case, threatening the latter to stop the manipulation and declare Raila president.
Even when Gen Ogola and the National Security Advisory Council made that infamous visit, Tuju had spent days there staking his everything on that announcement. At that exact time, Kinoti was desperately seeking Uhuru’s permission to arrest Chebukati for electoral malpractices and have Cherera announce Raila the winner. Many people who were supposed to be watching Raila’s votes were busy in lodgings doing aduk-aduk with people they had promised nomination.
When the dust had settled, even Raila acknowledged that in Tuju, he had had a true warrior, the first person at Bomas and the last out. And as with all things the former Rarieda MP has done, he never asked for any future quid pro quo.
One of my most lasting memories of Tuju is his NARC nomination certificate in 2002 being thrown through the window from an upper floor of Rainbow House to him on the ground, because goons brought by Moses Owiti Malo Malo were besieging people in the building. Raila and Ngilu were campaigning somewhere East of Nairobi, and they dashed there to save them. Owiti’s youths booed Raila. That was the red line.
But this story is about Raphael Tuju.
There are two things you must know: that Tuju is possibly one of the smartest leaders to ever walk this land. And also one of the smartest businessmen. Two, that both Kibaki and Uhuru declared him the only man in their cabinet who never sought favours, never chased tenders and never engaged in corrupt deals. Which is why it is important to know how he became a billionaire.
In the early days of the 80s and 90s, when most people made money by robbing parastatals under Moi, Tuju created Ace Communications from his news anchor and coms experience. At that time, UN agencies and international organisations were desperate for experts in Africa who could tell the story of HIV-AIDS and other human interest topics, in modern but understandable formats. Ace Communication hit the big league. Tuju made millions. Ace used to be based in Karen, at the site now occupied by JKUAT Karen Campus.
Indeed, back in 2002, when Owiti Malo Malo was nearly sending Tuju to the dogs, Raila interrupted his busy campaign schedule, took a chopper to Rarieda and firmly told the people of Asembo and Uyoma that his candidate was Tuju and he didn’t want to hear any more nonsense.
The loan that is now threatening Tuju’s property portfolio is as strange as they come. He went to a bank for Kshs 1.2 billion for a new development (the man only develops prime properties, not Dibondo Cycle Mart and Allied). 900m was for the land, while 300m was for the actual development. The bank processed the 900m directly to the land seller, then refused to release the 300m for the development. The drama started there. Later, anytime a senior official of the bank reiterated that Tuju was right in his demand for the rest of the loan, the person would be promptly fired. In other words, people had found a way to grab his property using the bank. And in the current regime, people like that are the majority.
The Tuju case is plain old property grab, in which the security services and the judiciary have been roped in. I have seen broad-based people (mostly the usual Luo variety) celebrating Tuju’s misfortune. I understand that people whose biggest assets are a Yamaha motorbike and a rat-catching nocturnal contraption may not understand the pain of building an empire over decades, then losing it unfairly
Opinion by Kipkalya Torei Kones
