He is now fallen, may his soul rest in peace, but many know less about him.
BREAKING: Former Civil Service head and city Billionaire Jeremiah Kiereini passes on in Nairobi aged 90, family says. pic.twitter.com/bQR0y2oVaz
— Citizen TV Kenya (@citizentvkenya) May 14, 2019
President Kenyatta said the late Kiereini remains an important part of Kenya's public service history due to his many achievements key among them being the role he played in the modernization of the Kenyan military when he served as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Defence.
— State House Kenya (@StateHouseKenya) May 14, 2019
As a senior civil servant, blue-chip boardroom director and an astute businessman, the beleaguered billionaire Jeremiah Gitau Kiereini strode the corridors of power like a colossus for three decades.
The positions lubricated the flow of money as he socialised with the high and mighty, investing in stocks and real estate.
In his autobiography, A Daunting Journey, he glosses over it with an annexure dated May 14, 2012.
But there are other revelations in the book that offer us an insight into the world of power, business, and high society in the Kenyatta-era.
One day in the 1970s, Mr Kiereini reveals for the first time, he almost killed populist politician J.M. Kariuki’s brother-in-law Harun Muturi, a city millionaire who had built his wealth by trading in gemstones and trophies.
In the world of business, the late Mr Muturi — the proprietor of Mamba Village and the father of Solicitor-General Njee Muturi — was nicknamed ‘Meta Meta’ thanks to the shiny gemstones he sold. He was, according to Mr Kiereini, also famous as a loose tongue.
The potentially fatal act was contemplated at Nairobi’s Mayfair Hotel where Mr Kiereini had gone for a drink.
At the table were some of the most powerful people in Kenya: Commissioner of Police Bernard Hinga, Head of Criminal Investigations Department Ignatius Nderi and General Service Unit (GSU) Commander Ben Gethi.
The discussion, according to Mr Kiereini, narrowed to Attorney-General Charles Njonjo. Also at the table was another millionaire Edward Kariuki who apparently had walked in with Mr Kiereini from Njenga Karume’s Pizza Garden.
The week before, Mr Njonjo (who like Mr Kiereini was a major shareholder of CMC) had been castigated by Members of Parliament for holding a parcel of land in Surrey, England, an act that was termed unpatriotic in light of Kenya’s colonisation by the British.
Mr Kiereini writes that he felt obliged to defend Mr Njonjo, who was also thought to be disrespectful of Africans and carried himself with an air of superiority, having grown up as the eldest son of a chief.
For that, Mr Muturi remarked that Mr Njonjo and Mr Kiereini should be thrown out of Kenya.
“Thii ukere murumegwo Njonjo ninii ndoiga (Go tell your husband Njonjo, I’m the one who said so),” Mr Muturi curtly said and continued to insult Mr Kiereni.
“I was so enraged at Muturi’s foul and vulgar insult that I decided I would shoot him. I went to my car in an overwhelming rage, to get my gun… I even considered shooting them all! But as I walked out into the fresh air… I came to my senses… went straight home and slept.”
Had Mr Kiereini returned, he would have altered the course of Kenya’s history radically. Perhaps.
During the Jomo Kenyatta era, Mr Kiereini was the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Defence where he oversaw the modernisation of the military or what he calls “complete overhaul of military hardware…an extremely expensive exercise.”
He hardly mentions the procurement only disclosing that the Chief of Defence, Major-Gen J.M. Ndolo would go to him with all his requirements.
Mr Kiereini’s friendship with Mr Njonjo would flourish over the years. The two invested in multiple companies over the decades including entities falling under the CfC Stanbic Holdings.