Businessman Francis Mburu is dead.
Mburu died Thursday February 20, 2025 morning in his house in Karen, Nairobi.
His family said he was found dead in the house and they were yet to confirm the cause of his death.
He had been sickly but not seriously, a family friend said.
His body was moved to the mortuary pending autopsy and burial.
Mburu was a silent billionaire in the city. He was known for his generosity in general.
He was paid Sh9.8 billion by the government over the past ten years for his stake in Ruaraka land.
He also owned vast pieces of land in and around Nairobi and Kilifi.
His friends mourned him as a generous and ever happy man.
“He helped many people. When he had money many others would receive the same,” said a close confidant.
Mburu never per took alcohol but had no qualms footing bills running as high as Sh250,000 a single night for his entourage of sidekicks, many of them politicians and city wheeler dealers.
It was also not uncommon for Mburu to play pool with each game pegged at Sh50, 000 for the loser.
He could at times lost about 20 games a night without feeling any heart burn, recalled another source who benefited from his generous spirit.
It was also not a big deal for Mburu to give out Sh5 million with the easiness of dishing out crumpled notes to a street beggar.
Part of Mburu’s fortunes emanated from the 96 acre Ruaraka land he bought from Israeli owned Joreth Limited in December 30, 1981 “when I was 31 years old”. Under his companies, Huelands Ltd and Afrison Export and Import Limited, Mburu paid Sh14 million for the land which he used to secure a Sh21 million loan from Continental Credit Finance to construct 600 houses for the defunct Kenya Posts and Telecommunication (KPTC), one of the largest state corporations of its day.
But Continental Credit Finance collapsed and was put under receivership.
This forced KPTC to secure a second mortgage of Sh165 million against the title to complete the stalled housing project.
Out of the 600 houses Mburu planned to build, only 196 were build and taken over by the General Service Unit (GSU).
GSU then hived off another 30 acres citing security concerns and 30 years later, Mburu went to court and was awarded a total of Sh9.8 billion for the land, and rent accrued for the land for which “the old man spent close to Sh1.5 billion chasing payment,” recalls another confidant.
A generous spendthrift, Mburu fell victim to extortionists and politicians who used to court him daily, biting huge chunks of his fortune.
Even before he was paid the money, Mburu was a rich man, at any given moment, he travelled in three Land Cruisers, the first and the last one ferrying his security detail and him in the car in the middle.
The payment of the money disoriented his life so much.
Interestingly, before the Ruaraka land saga become media fodder, few Kenyans could pick the man who runs about 50 companies from a crowd of three.
He had many pending cases in court over land issues. Among them is the land where Talanta stadium is being built on Ngong Road, Nairobi. The land is still considered private even though the government took over the same for the construction of the stadium
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