KEY POINTS:
A retired Auckland man brutally slain in Kenya was on his first major trip abroad, helping to set up a business that will help the community that claimed his life.
Julian Nathan, 76, a father and grandfather, was beaten to death in the apartment complex where he was staying in Nairobi with two colleagues from his son's avocado oil company, Olivado.
Olivado marketing director John Ellegard described Mr Nathan as a "larger-than-life" man who liked to keep busy, despite being retired.
He had been looking forward to helping set up the company's Nairobi processing plant because his overseas travel had been limited to Australia.
"He was very excited about it," Mr Ellegard said. "He was larger than life. You would have never thought he was 76 years old. He was just one of those people. Julian was retired so he had time on his hands but also he loved to be busy. He was one of those people who couldn't sit still."
At food shows, where the company held stalls promoting its avocado oil, Mr Nathan would "rise at the crack of dawn" and would be "the very last one to go", he said.
"He was just a lovely, lovely person. When we were looking to put together another company and get some investors on board, Julian was the first to put his hand up."
Mr Ellegard said the relationship between Mr Nathan and his son Chris was "more like best mates than father and son".
Chris Nathan, who is based in Cleveland, Queensland, was to arrive in NZ late last night to spend time with family and to help get his father's body home for the funeral, Mr Ellegard said.
Julian Nathan and his colleagues had planned to open the Nairobi processing plant next week. Olivado hoped to continue working there but the future was uncertain.
"The other thing that made it quite hard to accept is that this was going to be really good for the people of Kenya, for the people growing.
"He'd lived a good life, he'd lived a full life. It's just absolutely devastating that he had to die this way.
"He didn't deserve it. He was too good for that and I hope they catch these people [the attackers].
"If they knew him they would be very ashamed of themselves. I just think those cowards who have done something like this - they're not human."
Olivado production supervisor Phillip Civil, who was bound and gagged during the attack, arrived at Auckland Airport yesterday, still visibly shaken.
Mr Civil said the robbers, brandishing machetes, kept screaming, "We want your money", and when the engineers said they had none, they were told to "lie down and go to sleep".
Among the items the robbers took was Mr Civil's laptop, containing all his photos and videos of his stay in Kenya.
Asked if he would go back there, he said: "I don't think so, no."
Olivado's production supervisor in Cleveland, New Zealander Ray Kensington, also did not want to return to Nairobi, Mr Ellegard said.
"I just couldn't understand it. I just couldn't believe it. They were in a secure compound in a gated community with guards. While they were working we had security as well there. I don't know what else we could have done."
Kenyan police were last night questioning security guards from the complex the group was staying at, suspecting the raid could have been an "inside" job.
-additional reporting: NZPA
