Pattni used links to State House

Mr Pattni found himself in a tight spot when Mr T. K. Birech-Kuruna, the CBKs exchange controller, wrote an internal memo to the then Governor Mr Eric Kotut reporting that Goldenberg was not complying with the regulations stipulated in the export contract, but was instead selling foreign currency to its bank to cover its transactions. This was irregular and illegal.

Mr Birech-Kuruna further told Mr Kotut that Customs and Excise had processed Goldenbergs export compensation claims and the Treasury had paid up. Suspicious of Pattni’s dealings, First American Bank closed its transactions with Goldenberg. Something strange was to follow.

Although Goldenberg International was not a financial institution, the CBK went ahead and granted the company a foreign exchange dealer’s license on April 8, 1991. With the arising discomfort by First American to deal with Goldenberg, the company moved its account to Citibank NA, a subsidiary of Citicorp, in May 1991.

With his ability to wriggle out of any fix with the government, he managed to put up the Grand Regency Hotel, which CBK put under receivership after he failed to pay a debt amounting to Sh2.5 billion. But it is not just the bureaucrats that he was rubbing the wrong way, even his fellow businessmen were not spared.

He managed to wrestle Marshalls East Africa and Nyali Beach hotel from businessman Ketan Somaia. In the last general elections, Pattni joined elective politics when he acquired a political party, KENDA.

While he sought a parliamentary seat in Westlands constituency, he sponsored candidates on the party ticket throughout the country. Only Linah Jebii Kilimo was elected to Parliament while the rest of the candidates, including Pattni himself, lost.