Kungu Kurumba

Meria

Elder Lister
Staff member
Last week on Monday, the family of the late Kungu Kurumba carried out a full page spread Memorial tribute in the obituary pages of both the Nation and Standard newspapers. Both Nation and Standard showed photos also of his 3 late widows. The family also has accepted that he died in June 1974.Previously, it was reported that his whereabouts were unknown since he was reported missing in Uganda. This is a short story of what happened in June 1974.A very active as businessman,Kungu Karumba invested in Uganda.He loaned a substantial sum of money to the wife of Ugandan military commander Isaac Maliyamungu,but she did not pay back her debt. Karumba consequently travelled to Uganda in June 1974, and disappeared, his fate unclear. Intelligence reports later implicated Maliyamungu of murdering Karumba during a disagreement over his wife’s debts.Karumba disappeared on June 15, 1974, leaving family and friends confounded. He was on a business trip to Uganda. Karumba imported raw materials from the neighboring country. He had left for Uganda on June 13, 1974, but never returned. He posed as Mzee Kenyatta’s younger brother in Uganda before he was killed there.He went there to get Ksh 19,000 back from Margaret, who had borrowed the money from him and said she would pay him back later.In June 1974,he drove away from Nairobi in a brand-new Toyota Hilux pickup truck with the license plate KPW 301. Peter Karanja,one of his sons who was 19 years old at the time, was with him. Ibrahim Mungai and Susan Wamaitha, a Kenyan business couple living in Uganda, gave him a place to stay and helped him find Margaret's store.Kung'u and Kenyatta had both been in prison in Kapenguria, and when the woman ignored them when Kung'u went to the store, he decided to call the police. He decided to go back and talk to Margaret again because the authorities wouldn't investigate his complaint. When Margaret got to her store, an angry fight broke out, and she threatened to tell her military husband about Kung'u. Margaret called the number right away and said: "Nguudi jaree? Is he around? ‘Bwaja mugambe muita’ Please tell him I'm calling)."Susan, who was with Kung'u, got him to leave before things got out of hand. Before they went home, they stopped at a KCC store to buy milk. Susan got out of the car and left Kung'u there. But when she got back, Kung'u and the car were gone.“Why do you visit this place so often? I'll tell my partner that you're making me mad. Margaret told them.Karumba walked up to her without being scared and said, "Look at me instead of your husband. I'm President Kenyatta's brother. I'll tell President Amin if you don't give me my money.Early the next morning, a bartender went to the house where Kung'u was staying to warn the people there that drunk soldiers were celebrating the death of "Kenyatta's brother" and throwing his body away in Mbira Forest.His host, Ibrahim, went straight to the jungle, where he found shirt wrappings that he knew from Karumba's car.He told President Amin's advisor, Colonel Isaac Maliyamungu, about what he had found, and Maliyamungu set up a fake search for the body. Kungu's remains have never been found.
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