On 20 November 2018, Nyakundi Report reported renewed concern over National Bank of Kenya, saying allegations of fraud and impunity had unsettled customers, industry players and the wider public.
The report said Central Bank of Kenya governor Patrick Njoroge had not taken decisive action over the matter. It also blamed poor management at the lender, which it described as struggling to make profits under Wilfred Musau, who was said to have once been linked to a sex scandal then pending in court.
Attention in the article also fell on Mohammed Hassan, whom the report described as a recurring figure in the bank’s troubles. Nyakundi Report said accountability institutions and the regulator had not forced him to resign or face prosecution over the alleged fraud.
The piece linked Hassan to the Bluebird Aviation scandal, alleging that more than Ksh. 100 Billion was siphoned from the company. It said he had been sued over that matter.
It then returned to a separate dispute that the site said it had covered in 2016, involving John Kungu Kiarie, Dyer and Blair Investment Bank and Stannic Bank Kenya Limited. According to the report, Kiarie placed Kshs. 100,000,000.00 with Dyer and Blair for investment in stocks and securities, and the then General Manager Mohammed Hassan allegedly misled him by citing a non-existent court order freezing the account holding the money.
Nyakundi Report said Hassan was now carrying the same conduct into National Bank of Kenya, which it described as troubled. The article repeated its criticism of the Central Bank of Kenya governor and said the regulator had still not acted strongly enough.
In a separate reference, the report quoted DCI boss George Kinoti as saying that much fraud was driven by a bank’s own employees because due diligence was not done during hiring. The article ended by asking why Mohammed Hassan was still employed at NBK and who, if anyone, had looted the bank after Munir Ahmed was cleared by the DPP.
