KEY POINTS:
The son of a 76-year-old New Zealander beaten to death in his apartment in Nairobi says his father would have wanted the company to continue on in Kenya.
Julian Nathan had been in Nairobi to help set up an avocado oil processing plant for New Zealand company Olivado, with engineers Phil Civil and Ray Kensington.
The two other men were bound, blind-folded and gagged in one room by two intruders while Mr Nathan was killed in the other.
Mr Nathan's son, Chris, the company's managing director, said during the months he was in Kenya with his father he had no concerns for his safety. "Never, ever and we went everywhere ... We could stop, get out of the car, ask for directions - it was never a problem," he told Radio New Zealand.
"The perception of marauding gangs roaming the streets is totally unfounded."
They stayed in gated compounds because there were a lot of poor people and "if you put temptation in their way they'll wander in and pinch your stuff".
Nairobi police had suggested his father fought back, but Chris Nathan said that would not have been the case.
"He was stone deaf ... they probably got frustrated because he couldn't understand what they were saying.
"You know, it's the middle of the night, you're 76 years old, you haven't got your hearing aids in, and I'm not justifying it but if frustration boiled over and someone hit him - it doesn't take much for an old person.
"I don't forgive these people and I never will." But his father's death had not prompted him to close the Kenyan operation down.
"My dad would want us to carry on. He was with the company from the very, very start as a founding shareholder. He did it for love."
- NZPA
