Serious Criminal Cases Facing Controversial Businessman Who Wants to be Kenya’s President

In the streets of Nairobi there are serious businesspeople in legit activities and who rarely make known about their wealth.

There are however others who keep yapping about who they are and what they have accomplished, albeit in a dishonest way.

One such person is Paul Kobia, a flamboyant businessman who is controversial and loud on politics.

The man from Tigania, Meru County is purported to be a billionaire by some people and his activities are said to be buying and selling gemstones.

He claims he will vie for presidency in 2022 to right the wrongs committed by the incumbent and past governments. But is he a guy who can even be entrusted with a County Ward leave alone a country?

The 54-year-old Kobia claims he has a gold mining field in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and has a tendency of showing off his cars and bodyguards escorting him in flashy, big cars.

Kobia also purports to be commander of an outfit called ‘Uhuru Big Boys Unit’ that supports President Uhuru Kenyatta.

On social media, especially Facebook, he shares video clips of him reprimanding politicians and government officials.

He purports to be the fourth in command after President Uhuru, DP William Ruto and ODM leader Raila Odinga.

Recently he was in court again over a case where he is accused of defrauding an Italian Sh14 million in a fake gold deal.

But this is not the first time he is facing serious criminal charges.

In November 2010 he was arrested and charged for trying to scam a South African Dennis Ray Schmelzenbach.

He pretended he could sell Schmelzenbach 825 kilogrammes of gold. He had already received Sh17.4 million. The charge was however dropped.

In 2011 a United Nations report named Kobia as a key suspect in illegal smuggling of gold from DRC.

Seven months earlier, then DRC president Joseph Kabila had accused Kobia of stealing 2.5 tonnes of gold worth Sh8 billion from Congo.

President Kabila even flew to Kenya to meet the President Mwai Kibaki for talks over that gold heist.

In March 2017 he was again in the wrong books with the state after he was accused of kidnapping and assaulting a Congolese businessman identified asBlancard Londole.

In a dramatic turn of events, the businessman sought to drop the criminal case claiming he had negotiated an out of court settlement with Kobia.

The man who is fond of hanging out with politicians like Mike Sonko and some other shady characters behind some heinous activities in Kilimani is not yet out of the woods.

He was also a very close friend of Odinga’s late son Fidel Odinga.

In an ongoing case he and 13 others are accused of luring Italian businessman Antonio Cianci to a house on Riverside Drive where they swindled him Sh14 million in a fake gold deal.

This happened in April 2019, the same time a local bank closed accounts he had with them.

Cianci who is a director of Iron & Steel DMCC company based in Dubai told the court that the accused sold him fake gold through their companies registered as Duaf International Limited and Malva Amit Limited.

The case will proceed on December 15 this year.

Kobia is also facing charges of forging stamps from the National Treasury, the Central Bank of Kenya, director of the Geological Survey, Ministry of mining, Kenya Revenue Authority Customs and Excise duty department, Executive Office of Presidency, Department of Procurement Nairobi and that of Registrar of Companies Kenya.

Another charge is being in possession of a machine capable of making the impression of a stamp for the Chief Magistrate’s Court Nairobi.