Simply Me

Somali tycoons in Kenya are uncountable... As a matter of fact, apart from the exotic populations of Europeans and Indians, and the ruling Kikuyu ethnic group, no other tribal grouping has as much wealth and as many tycoons as the Somalis... but none of our tycoons beats a certain Sheikh Burhan. A few might match his wealth but no Somali is as influential in the Kenyan political scene...yet he is not a politician. These guy is a case study in Somali ingenuity and if there is such a thing as The Somali Dream he has lived it. He rose from herding camels to a life of opulence. He is not educated but i hear he can speak english these days. I have never met him but i used to admire him, until Thursday the 15th of March.

It seems one good Kenyan in the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (of which i have a lot of complains against) smelt something rotten in these tycoons vast real estate empire. When the good sheikh found out there was a 'dog' from Kacc sniffing around, he decided to do what most Kenyans do when confronted with these hungry dogs from Kacc... give it something to sink its canines onto. He proceeded to make an appointment with the investigator in a public hotel and gave out a bribe of Kshs 1 million. Now, in a country where more than half of us live on less than a dollar a day, you surely can understand when i say A million Kenyan shillings is a lot of money.

There was only one problem that these self-made billionaire did not anticipate...that he was not dealing with an ordinary dog, he wasnt dealing with an ordinary Kenyan police officer...In short, our tycoon was set up. He was captured on press video giving out the bribe. Now we get to the most amazing part of my news story.

Only two out of four present TV stations showed the clip at 7 in the evening and surprisingly none showed it at prime Kenyan news time...at 9 pm. He bought the Kenyan media, dear bloggers. Still, he was taken to court where nearly all the Kenyan Somali MPs and 3 other cabinet ministers attended. The court room was packed by Somalis and all business came to a standstill. The packing space at Makadara law courts was full and so the adjacent Jogoo road was turned into one. He was granted a bond of 15 million and a surety of similar amount and the case was postponed to September...I did not get an opportunity to interview him since he was driven off in an entourage of cabinet ministers. Despite all that, the media still gave it a blackout and that is the sad story of the Kenyan media scene.