Billionaires have often espoused the untouchable persona but as it turns out, not all of them enjoyed the privilege.
In 2010, a heartbreaking story of Billionaire Gerishon Kirima who was locked up in his house, supposedly by his third wife, Teresia Wairimu, shook the nation hard.
According to The Standard, Kirima was locked away from his family and his friends and it took police intervention for him to finally secure his freedom.
So serious was the situation that the three doors to his house, including one that was grilled, had to be broken for him to be freed.
The publication further detailed that when he finally emerged, his feet were swollen and couldn’t fit into blue-patterned loafers.
He hugged his children, Gerald, Gabriel, Waruguru, Wairimu, Charlotte and Ruthie, while sobbing.
The scene grew more emotional when the policeman who was overseeing the break-in also broke down.
Kirima’s grass-to-grace story was equally as tough has his last moments on earth became.
He started out as a carpenter at the University of Nairobi before relocating to Kaloleni where his wife Agnes Waruguru sold furniture Kirima made in his spare time outside their house.
The tycoon later ventured into the meat business, the Njiru slaughterhouse, and real estate business before he constructed his empire into a Ksh750 million behemoth that his kin would tussle over.
Kirima, who was once an MP for Starehe and assistant minister in former President Daniel Moi’s government, passed on later that year, on December 28, while undergoing treatment in South Africa.
