NAIROBI Kenya August 28 -Kabras Sugar chairman Jaswant Singh Rai was Sunday evening released unharmed by his abductors.
His lawyer Senior Counsel Kioko Kilukumi said the businessman was shaken but fine and back with his family.
He is, however, yet to reveal who his abductors were.
The billionaire who owns Raiply, Kabras Sugar and Uganda based Sarrai Group went missing when his Toyota LC200 was blocked at the junction of Wood Avenue in Kilimani opposite Kenwood Apartments at around 4pm by persons driving a grey double-cab pick-up.
The kidnap was captured on a CCTV camera on Wood Avenue, Kilimani, where he was seen being pulled off a vehicle and forced into an awaiting car.
The car, according to the footage, is a grey double cabin pick-up which had intercepted the missing man’s car at a junction.
Two men dressed in black alighted and accosted him, with a back-and-forth ensuing between Rai and the abductors. He was however overpowered and forced into the vehicle, which drove off.
It is from this 1.06-minute video clip that the family reached the conclusion that their kin had been abducted.
The family, through the daughter, made a report at Kilimani police station, Occurrence Book (OB) number 21/26/08/2023.
Kilimani Sub-County Police Commander (SCPC) Moses Ndiwa on Saturday said they were yet to establish the identity of the people involved though other sources alluded to business rivalry in the sugar industry.
Rai’s vehicle was found abandoned in Kilimani and later towed to the police station by Traffic department officers.
Activist Boniface Mwangi was among the first Kenyans to share the CCTV footage online. The Law Society of Kenya (LSK) President Eric Theuri also claimed that Rai was kidnapped by persons believed to be police officers.
The missing billionaire is the custodian of the Will left behind by their father Tarlochan Singh Rai who died in 2010.
His close family members have however accused him of seeking to administer their family estate as a loner.
In 2021, for example, his mother Sarjij Kaur Rai took him to court seeking to object to his move to secure a court permission to execute the Will as per his wish.
The family has interests in agriculture, horticulture, timber, cement, edible oils, and real estate. They also have empires in Uganda and Tanzania, where they own Kanyara Sugar Works and Mufumbira Paper Mills. The family rose to fame when it acquired the debt-ridden Pan Paper Mills in Webuye at a cost of Sh900 million.
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