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The da Gama-Rose family was in the limelight last year over the controversial grabbing of their 134-acre land valued at Sh8 billion in Karen, Nairobi by mandarins in government.
This Goan business family, just so you know, was the first to introduce PCs in Kenya in 1982 through Computer Applications Ltd (today Symphony). Besides IT, their other interests encompass tourism, floriculture, finance, manufacturing, printing, packaging and real estate. They also have ‘legal blood’ running in the family.
Francis da Gama-Rose: Operated Francis da Gama-Rose & Co Advocates, whose clients included first President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and the then Nairobi PC, John Mburu. By the way, he sneaked medication to Kenyatta when he was in Kapenguria and that was how their friendship started and spilled over to business, that included being associates of retired President Moi, former VP Moody Awori and Naushad Merali.
Mirabeau Humberto da Gama-Rose: Before his death at 82 in 2012, he was the long-serving chair of Commercial Bank of Africa, in which the Kenyattas hold a substantial stake. Mirabeau was also chair of the then Nairobi Stocks Exchange and pushed for the privatisation of state-owned firms during his tenure. As a partner at Shapley Barret & Co Advocates, where he specialised in commercial, corporate and financial law, Mirabeau represented, among others, Mama Ngina Kenyatta and former powerful Cabinet minister Nicholas Biwott. Little wonder the offices of the da Gama-Rose Group are at Biwott’s Yaya Centre.
Mirabeau, was admitted to the bar in 1956 after graduating from the University of Bombay.
Horatius Da Gama Rose: Owns Muchanga Ltd that bought the Karen land. The 72-year-old lawyer was taken ill in a London hospital at the time of the hullabaloo over the Karen land. A chain smoker who had suffered stroke seven years ago, he often referred to Goans as a ‘photocopy of the Jews’ for their entrepreneurial streak.
Fernanda da Gama-Rose: Wife of Horatius with whom she owns a combined 20,000 shares of Symphony - the IT giant that won the tender to supply biometric voter registration kits used for registration of voters just before the 2013 General Election.
Dimitri da Gama-Rose: Is the Group Strategy Director for the da Gama-Rose Group of Companies and the family face during court cases. The son of Horatius is an alumnus of University of London, School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (Masters in Health Economics) and Macalester College (BA, Anthropology, Global Health).
