Tribute: Awesome to behold, famously unsentimental, Kirubi took no prisoners

Billionaire businessman Chris Kirubi died on June 14, 2021, at the age of 80. [Courtesy]

Chris Kirubi has been eulogised in laudatory terms these last few days. That is as it should be. He was an exceptionally successful businessman, a larger than life presence on Nairobi’s social scene, a bon vivant possessed of exquisite and enviable taste in all things, an erudite conversationalist on a wide range of subjects, an ever-present mentor, a generous benefactor to and patron of many

That is the Chris Kirubi eulogised by many. I join them in paying tribute to that Chris. But there is another essential but little-known Chris Kirubi: a brilliant Chris, an intensely and proudly African Chris, one who played a decisive role in cementing Kenyan-Africans’ place at the top table of the big corporate world. It is this Chris Kirubi that fascinates me, and to whom I make this tribute