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Billionaire SK Macharia was cursed, son died… endless woes followed!

Tycoon battling domestic wrangles, recently held a cleansing ceremony to reverse the curse

Wizard of the Crow: Media mogul SK Macharia has been facing endless calamities for which he has known no peace since a curse was pronounced on him four years ago. The late sociologist Ken Ouko once argued that “if a witch doctor tried bewitching a man who doesn’t believe in witchcraft, nothing will happen.  It is the same thing with curses “whose potency has been dwindled by Christianity.”

By Mbatia wa Njambi

Visiting Thinker

Media mogul SK Macharia was issued with an irreversible curse from which he was to suffer endless calamities despite his billions. That was four years ago. Could the curse be coming true going by the endless personal losses including the death of his son, court fights with his grandson over property, bad blood with his daughter in-law and domestic tiffs with his wives and their sons?

The curse rituals, from which SK was to know no peace, were conducted not far from his home in rural Ndaka-ini, Murang’a County by Kiama Kia Ma (Council of the Truth) in January 2017 after the tycoon was summoned by the Council to apologize for ‘betraying his community’ but he refused.

Five months later his son, John Gichia Macharia, Kenya’s largest underwriter of public service vehicles, died in a road accident in 2018. Was it just a coincidence? Now Gichia’s son, Adam Kamau Macharia, has taken his grandpa to court over his father’s Sh1.2 billion properties.

Gichia could not let his eyes off Lisa Anyango, chasing her the whole night. They hit it off and shortly their first child, now suing SK, was born

Sins of the father: Like his father, the late John Gichia Macharia was loaded like a gun. His son has sued his grandpa, SK Macharia and at stake in the court case, are billions in real estate, property and shares in private companies including Directline Assurance, Kenya’s largest PSV underwriter, where Gichia was the largest shareholder with a 70 percent stake. SK’s Royal Media Services holds a minority nine percent stake, but Adam has accused him of taking over the running of the company, according to his suit papers.

 Gichia also left Sh315 million in life insurance and Sh67 million under his pension to Adam. That dough, Sh382 million in total, was paid to Directline Assurance which SK wants to control and which is part of the inheritance dispute with his grandson.

Adam was 17 when his father died, and being a minor, could not sue. But he’s now  a young adult at 21. His beef with SK has also extended to the properties his father left including the Loresho home from where SK is evicting him and his mother, former Kiss FM presenter, Lisa Anyango Amenya, now the marketing manager at MTV Base.

Gichia, a lover of fast cars, had no written will, by the time of his death in 2018

Grave tarmac: The late John Gichia was SK Macharia’s son from his first wife, Serah Njeri Macharia. Gichia, a lover of fast cars, had no written will, by the time of his death in 2018 while driving the Porsche above along the Eastern bypass. Gichia’s son, Adam, zigzags between visiting cucu Njeri, SK’s estranged wife in Karen and grandpa SK in Runda estate, Nairobi. Adam and SK are facing each other in court over his father’s Sh1.2 billion properties.

Lisa had just returned to Kenya from the USA in 1998 when Gichia saw her during a party at the Nairobi Gymkhana. He could not let his eyes off the yellow-yellow, chasing her the whole night. They hit it off and shortly Adam was born.

The two never officially married. But Lisa and Adam lived in one of Gichia’s houses in Kyuna Estate. Gichia lived in another house within Kyuna, but had moved to another in Loresho before his death.

Elders cursed SK Macharia’s business empire, which includes Royal Media Services, and his generations

The Prodigal daughter: The late Gichia’s wife, Lisa Anyango, is a former radio presenter at KISS 100 FM from whom SK Macharia is demanding the return of eight cars: Two Range Rovers, two Land Rovers, a BMW, Jaguar, Jeep and Porsche 911. The Porsche and Land Rover Discovery are registered under her name.

SK has also asked the court to exclude Lisa from the property dispute case since Adam “was born out of wedlock and that she has no known interest in the estate under the law of Succession.”

All the above are party litany of problems the tycoon has been battling since the curse was issued against him by Kiarie wa Rugami, the chair of Kiama Kia Ma (Council of the Truth), a splinter group of the Kikuyu Council of Elders.

During the ritual, a goat was pierced with a horn while incantations were made before the elders announced they had cursed his business empire, which includes Royal Media Services and his generations ‘for betraying and politically selling it out his community.’

The curse is irreversible and nothing can be done to save him

The Curser-in-Chief: Kiarie wa Rugami, the chair of Kiama Kia Ma (Council of the Truth) issued a cursed on SM Macharia and noted that he knew Catholic priests were praying for SK and promising to reverse the rite but “that will not be possible. They are lying to him.”

 “We know any time calamities can strike him,” said Rugami adding that the entire sacrificial goat was burnt meaning “the curse is irreversible and nothing can be done to save him.”

Since then, all has not been well for the House of Macharia. Is it why SK had a cleansing ritual ceremony at the same spot in Ndaka-ini to lift the curse this April? In their ritual, the Elders sacrificed a sheep to sanctify the place and reverse the previous curse.

Gichia’s death opened a can of worms which has exposed the drip of endless tears in the Macharia household.

African curses are feared to be dreadfully potent to kill, jinx, mute wombs and testicles

Potent Ash: The goat that was sacrificed during the curse ritual on SK Macharia not far from his rural Murang’a home. It begs the question, do curses work?
Well, African curses are feared to be dreadfully potent to kill, deafen, blind, jinx, mentally incapacitate, mute wombs and testicles.
Dr PN Wachege, a philosophy and religious studies lecturer at the University of Nairobi reckons that “the fear of curses and cursing is real. A curse is a disturbing anguish in life, whether one is a pauper or billionaire. Victims of curses suffer low esteem, a sense of helplessness and feel useless, unloved, unvalued, and hated from associated phobia.”

In his court papers, the grandson says his cucu, Serah Njeri Macharia and SK Macharia were joint administrators of his dad’s estate. But his Cucu withdrew, leaving SK as the only administrator, yet he is not a beneficiary of the Sh1.2 billion estate.

Besides Directline, Gichia was the sole owner of AKM Investments under whose assets includes four houses—one in Kyuna Crescent, Mugumo Crescent, Kibarage Estate and Nanyuki. Gichia’s siblings, Stella and David Macharia,as well as Lisa are listed as the other directors of AKM-borrowed from Adam Kamau Macharia.

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