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Jimmy Baburan Jagatram, a tycoon flew from Nairobi to Watamu in July 2015 for a vacation with his wife Amina Shiraz and their three children.
The family booked into a five-star resort in Watamu where they were joined a day later by two family nannies.
Days later, on July 26, Jimmy’s wife found his body in a pool. He had drowned. A postmortem report indicates that Jimmy had died as a result of drowning and injury to his head.
Jimmy who studied aeronautics and business engineering in the United Kingdom, was cremated three days later. Shiraz, the court heard, wanted him buried in accordance with Islamic traditions. Jimmy’s sudden death caused friction between his family and that of his wife, Amina Shiraz. At the centre of the fight was Jimmy’s vast wealth and the cause of his death.
Jimmy’s family accused Shiraz of conspiring with her American lover identified as Jacob Schmalze to drown their son with intentions to control Jimmy’s vast estate.
Two legal application disputes have been filed at the Milimani Law Courts by Jimmy’s father David Baburam seeking administration of his son’s Sh50 million life insurance policy benefit left behind, businesses in Dubai and Nairobi and his vast estate worth over Sh500 million.
The other dispute is about who between Shiraz and David will have custody of the couple’s two children, considering Shiraz had another child before marrying Jimmy in 2012 after cohabiting for two years.
According to David, a former KDF officer currently serving as a senior top security consultant with the African Union in Addis Ababa, Jimmy was murdered by his wife and her American lover Schmalze.
Shiraz has since been charged with conspiring with Schmalze to kill Jimmy in a love triangle gone sour, and is currently out on a Sh10 million bond with two similar sureties. Schamlze who has a warrant of arrest against him is said to have left his Nairobi home and relocated to Oakland, USA.
The father told Lady Justice Dorah Chepkwony that his son was not only his friend, but also a business partner with whom they ran Afri-Log Defence Resource Management and other consultancies.
“I have more money than I would care for, and I am old and won’t be going with the wealth once I die. I am not a beneficiary to his wealth. After we know the truth and nothing but the truth, life will go back to normal,” said David, disputing claims that he was after his son’s wealth.
Police investigations indicate that Schmalzle’s shirt had blood stains on the day Jimmy died, raising suspicion that there might have been a fight that night after a family dinner and a drinking spree in the company of his wife and Schmalzle.
David accused Shiraz of failing to mention the presence of Schmalze to the family yet he was present on the night of Jimmy’s death having drinks with him.
