With the exception of the increased militarism in demand for Kenya’s independence, no story dominated Nairobi’s social circuit in the early 1950s more than that of Rivers Royston, in the criminal case Number 2 of 1951 at Nairobi chief magistrate’s court.
South African born Royston came to Kenya at the end of the 1940s. He was a man you couldn’t ignore and soon became a sensation in his new country.
He was a sharp dresser, often in crisp suit and tie, if not a dinner jacket and bow tie.
He loved the finest whisky money could buy, the type Bob Collymore last shared with members of his “boys club”, and drove expensive “toys”.
His favourite was a convertible sports car which he always drove top-down irrespective of the weather.
Like with all brokers, Royston was never an office person and preferred transacting business over a sumptuous meal in a top-end hotel. He had a table permanently reserved at the reconstructed New Stanley Hotel and at the Norfolk.
COPPER
Gracing Royston’s table would be top government officials, who he wanted to facilitate this or that deal. Another day, he’d be hosting foreign businessmen mainly from India, Pakistan, and Lebanon, who had come in search of business and contracts in then British Eastern Africa – Kenya, Uganda, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, Somalia and Sudan.
Then, like Goldenberg mastermind Kamlesh Pattni, Royston, dreamt of a mega mineral “export” scheme.
His story was simple. He said he had obtained orders to supply copper to the Zanzibar islands where authorities were putting up a drop-line telephone system and wanted wires to cover the entire islands.
In the aftermath of world war, there was a globe shortage of copper, but Royston convinced all and sundry that he had secured reliable supply lines in the Congo and Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia).
The only catch was that he didn’t have enough money to pay for the huge supplies, hence requested his friends to loan him money — which he’d pay back at a handsome 50 per cent interest.
LOAN
At first, many of his friends hesitated to take the risk and only made promises to get back to him.
But for the few who took the gamble, Royston kept his word, paying back on time and with interest promised. Soon word went around that indeed Royston could keep his word, after all.
Overnight, there was a stampede to his door. Rich English farmers and Indian businessmen were now willing to empty their bank accounts and lend to the smooth-talking South African.
Whereas in the beginning it was Royston going on his knees to borrow cash, now the shoe was in the other foot.
It was the South African to choose whose money to take and which to reject!
Up to that point, Royston kept his word – paying back in time and at agreed interest – and the money kept coming.
Interestingly, nobody noted Royston hardly ever left Nairobi, and nobody found it necessary to check whether there was any contract with the Arab rulers in Zanzibar, or confirm with authorities in Congo and Rhodesia whether any copper was leaving their countries for Zanzibar on orders from the Kenyan “businessman”.
INVESTIGATION
The truth of the matter was that it was all fiction. There was no telephone construction going on in Zanzibar, hence no contract to supply copper entered with Royston who had never set foot in the islands!
In the meantime, local banks alarmed by the run-ins occasioned by massive customer withdrawals competing to lend Royston money, smelt a rat and urged police to probe whether the scheme involved money laundering or related criminal activities.
The Kenya police got in touch with their South Africa counterparts. The first discovery was that while in South Africa, Royston operated under a different name, Baxter Bullough, and that “Rivers Royston” was coined to give cover to his newfound Nairobi “enterprises”.
Authorities in Johannesburg further suspected Royston was involved in smuggling of gold and diamonds to Europe and laundering the money via the purported copper exports to Zanzibar.
Next, police established there had never been any copper export business with Zanzibar.
BAIL DENIED
Royston was subsequently arrested and charged with obtaining money by false pretences.
The court denied him bail and ordered he be locked at Muthaiga Police Station as investigations commenced on suspected smuggling and money laundering.
There was a moment of drama one day when a plane in which his wife was travelling to London was recalled as it taxied away for take-off.
Royston’s wife was whisked away for a search. Nothing was found on her, but tellingly she never came back to Kenya fearing arrest.
Royston’s residence was also searched upside down but nothing of interest was found.
With police getting nowhere with investigations, it was decided charges on obtaining by false pretences proceed on their own.
Instead of denying guilt, Royston admitted to the charges against him but cunningly turned tables on the court and his accusers.
DUE DILIGENCE
He told the court that as long as he was denied bail and kept in police custody, he was in no position to pay back the money advanced to him in the copper “export” deal. He asked he be set free to go refund the money he owed.
Next, he told the trial magistrate that those who trusted him and lent him money had only themselves to blame for their greed.
“Anybody who thinks they can increase their money by 50 per cent or more in as little as three months by legitimate means must be mad as well as extremely greedy!” he told the court.
He went on to admit having lied to his lenders but posed to the court: “Did any of the people who lent the money bother to check up in Zanzibar? No. Not one of them. If they had, they would have realised I was up to something illegal, and they wouldn’t wish to know what it was.”
Then he delivered the clincher that left both the court and would-be witnesses against him in a dilemma.
WITNESSES BACK DOWN
He told the magistrate: “Get one or more of the people who claim I owe them money to come and give evidence. I will be delighted to cross-examine them to say whether they thought what I was doing was entirely legal!”
With looming possibility of being enjoined in the case as accomplices in a crime, all the would-be witnesses grew cold feet and withdrew their complaints.
And with no witnesses coming to court, police withdrew the charges but, at the last minute, discovered Royston owned a firearm without a permit and nailed him on that.
He was jailed for three months and deported to South Africa upon release.
POSTSCRIPT: While locked at Muthaiga Police Station, Royston would appear in court looking fresh and in different clothes.
The same happened this week when the police station hosted for a night immediate former Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich and others.
It surprised me because sometimes back I happened to be a state guest at the same police station on account of a traffic offence but never saw any cell with beddings, wardrobe and dinning facilities. Could there be a VIP wing at the station?