Forget Simon Kabu, Mugabe gives sister-in-law Sh6.4m birthday gift

Kenyans on social media were recently awestruck after Bonfire Adventures Safaris Company owner Simon Kabu spent Sh30 million to spoil his wife on her birthday.

His gift package included a top-of-the-range landcruiser that was paraded on the streets of Nairobi to much ceremony.

A Sh200,000 cake that was ferried atop a van was then cut as Kabu celebrated.

While many congratulated him, there are those who felt the expenditure that also included a dinner at a top hotel and a trip to Seychelles were unnecessary.

However, if Kabu felt he outdid everyone, then he has not heard of Robert Mugabe. The Nairobi businessman can be excused for spending his hard-earned money.

Mugabe is presiding over an impoverished country where citizens give thanks they make it to the next day. But that has not stopped him and his family from seeking the best things life can offer and making unnecessary trips overseas.

News that Mugabe spent nearly Ksh4.8 million (US$60,000) as a birthday gift for his sister-in-law, which were revealed by the State-owned Herald newspaper, has shocked many.

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It says that the gift was to thank Junior Gumbochuma, who is the first lady’s eldest sister, for helping to bringing up Mr Mugabe’s children.

Mrs Gumbochuma is a pastor and the Herald reports that the president used the opportunity of her birthday celebrations to criticise Pentecostal preachers who make money from their congregants by stage-managing miracles.

Zimbabwe’s economy is currently struggling to grow and the country is experiencing a cash shortage as there are not enough dollar notes, one of the currencies used in the country, are in circulation.

To mark his 93rd birthday, Mugabe, in April, receives various gifts from his ministers, including a nine carat gold watch engraved with his face, a nine carat gold pen and stand and a massage chair. Some commentators equated the chair to a “wheel chair.”