The Jubilee Party (JP) made headlines on August 29 when the building housing its headquarters was put up for auction. The Emani Business Centre in Pangani sits on 0.5 acres and is registered under Farmers Industry Limited and Ms Florence Wairimu Mbugua. The building was owned by the late patriarch of the family Joseph “Muici” Kiarie Mbugua, a man described as “shifty and cunning”.
In an article appearing on the Daily Nation, John Kamau recounted his first encounter with Mbugua and went on to chronicle the number of people he had conned. According to the DN editor, “the Mbugua of the 1970s up to 90s was one man nobody wanted to cross his path. He had coffee. He had money. And walked around with a gun”.
Here is his story as compiled by WoK.
Coffee Business
He was in the coffee business, and like his other undertakings, the venture wafted off scandal. He stockpiled coffee worth millions of shillings in his coffee factory in Kiambu in the hope that the market would improve. Mbugua gave another story, stating that it was a “a protest against Coffee Board of Kenya, the epicentre of coffee scandals”.
“I came to learn later, and from records, that Mbugua had taken Sh75 million from the Kenya Planters Coffee Union (KPCU) miller and was one of the tycoons who did not want to repay the debt” John Kamau wrote in the article titled “Fate catches up with trickster billionaire Joseph Kiarie Mbugua who owns Jubilee Party HQ2”
Nicknamed Kiarie “Muici”
Because of perpetual land scandals, he was nicknamed Kiarie “Muici” which means “Kiarie the thief”.
Businesses he owned
He was the owner of Karura Quick Transport which was a successful venture. He also had a tea estate in Kiambu.
The conman in him
He took a loan using an alias Kiarie Kamwana.
Mbugua acquired a farm house and 10 acres of land from Mrs Beatrice Holyoak in 1977 through dubious means and renamed it Mawara Coffee Estate-which stands for dishonesty, trickeries, or dishonesties.
Through his company-Mbwanji Limited-he received maize worth Sh13 million from the National Cereals and Produce Board in 1986. It took an order from the court to have him pay years later.
Conned Kiambu Ting’ang’a Land Buying Company of their land in Githurai where he went on to build a petrol station. The owners had requested him to introduce them to an architect to come up with designs of a planned petrol station in Githurai. He asked them for the title and applied to the registrar of lands for a new title deed.
These are just some of the ways he used to amass wealth.
