‘Relative’ steals car from Jacob Juma’s funeral

 The portrait of a suspected conman who allegedly tricked family members of Jacob Juma to give him a vehicle that he later disappeared with

“A man claiming to be a relative and going by the fake name of Colins Monde alias Franc stole our car during my husband’s burial,” Miriam Juma, the wife of slain self-made billionaire Jacob Juma said.

In an interview with The Nairobian at her Nabuto village mansion in Bumula Bungoma, Miriam said that she did not expect to someone to take advantage of their grief during the burial.

“As we mourned, a man claiming to be a relative made away with our car, a Nissan X-trail, which we had hired from a firm based in Nairobi. I believe police are investigating the matter,” said Miriam.

A police officer at Bumula Police Post confirmed the case and said the ‘relative’ could have taken advantage of the situation.

“He probably realised that there were two groups at the funeral, one from Nairobi and another from the village,” said the officer. He told the Nairobi side that he was from the village and to the villagers, he claimed he was from Nairobi.

When the family realised they needed flower bouquets for the grave, “the impostor offered to run the errand. Because he looked trustworthy, he was given the car keys to fetch the flowers from Bungoma town,” said the officer.

But he did not return from his errand, prompting the family to seek the help of police officers.

Police, in conjunction with the car hire firm stalled the car, which by then had been tracked to Eldoret,

“Stalling of the car led to an accident with a vehicle belonging to a security firm. However they managed to escape from the scene of the accident with minor injuries,” the officer revealed.

The suspect is believed to hail from Kakamega.