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Slap earns tycoon Sh20m
Mr Josef Brunlehner with Kate Natasha, the winner of a beauty pageant at his Carneval restaurant, Mombasa. He was awarded Sh20m by a German court after being assaulted by German Prince in 2001. Photo/CORRESPONDENT
Posted Wednesday, March 10 2010 at 20:17
A royal slap has earned him a Sh20 million court award. But Mr Josef Brunlehner, who was assaulted by a German Prince at Lamu in 2001, would not touch the money; not even with a 20-foot pole. Why?
“I do not need money, what is Sh20 million?” he asks Nation, in an interview following the court award in Germany.
He vows he would not touch it “even if it was Sh200 million.”
For ordinary Kenyans, the figure is, plainly put; mind boggling and many would run out of ink writing down what they would do with such a windfall.
Luxury cars
Would it be several acres or prime land in parts of Nairobi? A number of luxury cars? A house or a trip to the much-touted Caribbean isles?
However, Mr Brunlehner is not your ordinary Kenyan.
He owns several establishments in the tourism and hospitality industry including the famous Chale Island which attracts millionaires from all over the world.
Mr Brunlehner is the managing director of Romantic Hotels. The businessman has a total of 26 establishments at the Kenyan coast.
But he is not turning down the money because it is more like … pocket change to him.
He insists that his satisfaction stems more from the fact that justice has prevailed on his part.
“I sued not to be compensated with money but for justice to prevail,” he told the Nation when reached on phone in Lamu where he is overseeing some of his hotel businesses.
The award arose from an assault on him by Prince Ernst August of Hanover at Shella beach in the tourist resort Island of Lamu nine years ago.
Prince August is the husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco. Prince August married Caroline the daughter of Prince Rainnier and Princess Grace in 1999.
He alleged that the prince had assaulted five other people and paid them off but he (Brunlehner) refused to be paid off.
“He (the Prince) came on the beach and landed three heavy punches on me, I sustained injuries and had to seek medical treatment,” said Mr Brunlehner while alleging the prince was drunk at the time.
Nothing was done
Mr Brunlehner, 62, said he reported the incident to police in Lamu but nothing was done.
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