Nairobi, KENYA:
A classic Mercedes Benz stolen from a showroom in Nairobi by former minister Paul Ngei has been found in a deplorable state.
Photos of the car which were shared on social media showed it mounted on stones and without wheels, its bonnet wide open and its paint cracking up.
The Mercedes Benz 300SEL registration number KNM 190 was a premium car in its heyday.
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| Paul Joseph Ngei (18 October 1923 – 15 August 2004) was a Kenyan politician who was imprisoned for his role in the anti-colonial movement, but who went on to hold several government ministerial positions after Kenya became independent. |
Paul Ngei walked into the famous car showroom in Nairobi (DT Dobie) in the 1970s and drove away with the vehicle never to return or pay for it.
At the time of its release, it was the world's fastest four-door car and when Ngei was pushed to pay for the vehicle, he would always refer the agents to State House and ask them to send the bill there.
The rogue minister drove the car for more than 20 years until his death in 2004, but the government had still not paid, claiming that Ngei took the car for personal use.
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| Paul Ngei(right) with Kenyan First President Jomo Kenyatta. |
A 2017 profile from The Standard Newspaper detailed how former Lands Minister, the late Paul Ngei lost his chance to complete his studies after he was involved in a violent altercation at Makerere University.
The story revealed that the cabinet minister, who was a student at the institution from 1948–1950, got carried away at a party in Uganda that ended tragically.
The politician is said to have stabbed a colleague after they fell out over a woman he was seeing, an action that led to his expulsion from the institution.
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| A Mercedes Benz 300SEL in a showroom. |
Car enthusiasts have started hunting for the car's location in a bid to acquire and restore it to its former glory.
Kenya is home to many car collectors who acknowledge the value of maintaining classic vehicles which sometimes are more expensive that modern cars.
Concours d'Elegance is one of the forums where car collectors get to showcase their impeccable taste and has accrued continental status for cars and motorcycles, having been recognized and sanctioned by the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme (FIM) Africa since 2006.
The depreciation of state-of-the-art once premium vehicle resembled Ngei's career which saw the minister go from dining with the high and mighty to being declared bankrupt.
In the 1990s his property was attached for failure to pay back a Ksh 19 million($175,000) bank loan. He then walked into the US Embassy in nairobi to demand 1 million US dollars.
He argued that as a Cabinet Minister, he always ensured US interests prevailed, especially at the height of the East-West ideological war.
Ngei, was also know for his liking of women and was caught red handed flirting with the late Jomo Kenyatta's daughter, Margaret.
When he and the first President Jomo Kenyatta were imprisoned at Kapenguria, they both wrote to Margaret often and one day their letters were mixed up and Kenyatta got a hold of what Ngei had penned Margaret.
According to Kenyatta's biographer, Jeremy Murray-Brown, Ngei was complaining about the prison's maddening solitude in the intercepted letter.
Kenyatta then confronted Ngei and joked about him being in a relationship with his daughter.
"What are you going to say now. I’ve caught you, ehee! You’ve kept mum for a long time and you are a son-in-law... and never said a thing,”
Mzee Kenyatta quipped.
Kenyatta didn't seem to mind because the relationship between him and Ngei did not change.
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