Joshua Kulei: Little formal education but extremely street smart

Read the first post in this two-post saga.

Joshua Kulei

In the late 1990s a friend who was a MOI aide at the time described a meeting with Joshua Kulei to me that left me dumbfounded.

The man has very limited formal education and when discussing projects like in this case a newspaper property, the man has problems understanding some basic English words that have something to do with industry but cannot be easily translated into Swahili or his Kalenjin vernacular.

Yet his street-smartness and survival instincts enabled him to be one of President Moi's longest serving aides. He is still very much an untouchable because his finances, as we have seen are so closely intertwined with those of the former president it would be very difficult to successfully prosecute him without prosecuting Moi.

Interestingly, Kulei has a brother called Terer Kulei who lives in New York and manages several properties which Kulei owns in the United States. The Kulei's have a reputation in New York for retaining very healthy bank accounts.

It is quite something that a lowly former prison warden has chosen to set up office in the Big Apple where even many wealthy Americans cannot afford to live. And his wealth is growing because he has retained some of the best stock brokers in the world to trade in shares for him both in New York and London.

Terer who is younger than Kulei visits Kenya only briefly and spends most of his time in New York with his family. When he visits Kenya he is usually seen in Kulei's offices in Nairobi at Trans National Bank.

So where did the initial vast sums of money to invest in New York come from?
His pension from the Kenya Prisons pension fund perhaps?

I am being cynical here and angrily so because so cocky are these thieves of public funds that when interviewed they deny everything without giving any solid basis for their denial. They even have the audacity to sue those who dare state the obvious. Already Gideon Moi has said that he is considering suing the Guardian in London who did an article based on the Kroll report. Maybe the Gurdian legal team should start their defense by demanding that the court ask the complainant how he is able to afford to take legal action in Britain. This would be firm basis of proving that whatever there is in the Kroll report and whatever was published in the Guardian is true and in fact only a tip of the iceberg.

Aftermath of Kabarak family meeting on finances
Incidentally after the Kabarak meeting, there was heightened activity in relation to the family assets in what appears to be a well co-ordinated move to secure the family wealth, which many believe is made up of tax payers money and looted assets.
A significant chunk of the Moi assets and fortune in general is now in Namibia where it is under the protection of the former president's good friend and president of that country Sam Nujoma. The Kroll report went on to say that it was believed that Gideon Moi was set to transfer a lot of the family wealth in South Africa to Namibia where the family always feels much more comfortable and secure to keep their treasure chest.

But all has not gone smoothly for the Moi family in securing their wealth as numerous problems have emerged from that fact that some mebers of the family hate to pay their bills and monies they owe to others, even as their own coffers overflow with billions in looted cash.

A fight that took place at a popular entertainment spot in Nairobi between Gideon Moi and the family lawyer Dr Kiplagat, emphasizes this. Evidence seems to suggest that the fight was instigated by the sale of US$ 650,000 property in South Africa which Dr Kiplagat facilitated in behalf of the younger Moi. After the sale was complete the lawyer did not hand over the proceeds from the sale but instead prepared an invoice for $US 1.5 million for various legal services rendered to Gideon over a lengthy period of time that was still outstanding. He then issued a credit note for US$650,000 and demanded that the balance owed to him be paid. Gideon was furious.

Interestingly this appears to be a contradiction of Gideon’s own well-voiced principals. The same Kroll report talks about a frequent boast Gideon makes to the effect that any deals worth less than US$ 1 million do not interest him and are not worth his while.

Since December 2003, Gideon has been trying to get the money from the sale of the South African property from Kiplagat, but with no success. On several occasions he sent Chepkonga to demand the cash on his behalf from the lawyer. So when Chepkonga saw the lawyers car parked outside Fairview Hotel one day, he immediately called Gideon who quickly arrived and headed straight to the table where Dr Kiplagat was seated. A fierce argument ensued with Gideon making his usual threats.

Eyewitnesses said that what caused the proceedings to shift from a verbal fight into a fully fledged fist fight was the point where Kiplagat told Gideon; "…your father is no longer the president of this country and the days you used to order people around are long gone." To add insult to injury he then ordered Gideon to move to another table. That is when fists and kicks started flying as baffled onlookers watched and others hurried to separate the two men.

It seems that many previously close aides have fallen out with the Moi's in recent times over similar circumstances and others have just moved on sensing that it isn't that profitable to hang around anymore.

But the really baffling part of the whole saga is how Gideon would rather squabble and physically fight it out at a Nairobi hotel with his former lawyer over a mere petty cash amount (by his standards) of $650,000. And all because he does not want to honor a fee note of $1.5 million part of which is still outstanding even after the lawyer has held his $650,000. Apparently that is what a lot of ill-gotten wealth does to the brain. And to make matters worse, the money does not even belong to Gideon or his father in the first place. It is in fact money looted from the people of Kenya.

With this kind of behaviour and the reckless decisions and moves being made, the future of the Moi billions is shaky at best.

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