This archive report was first published on 7 January 2020.
Published on January 7, 2020, the Jacaranda Hotel, a crown jewel of the late Njenga Karume's vast Sh40 billion empire, is facing auction over a Ksh257.6 million loan owed to Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank.
The hotel, which has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, is set to be sold to the highest bidder on January 22, 2020, at Regent Auctioneers.
According to a notice posted by Regent Auctioneers, interested bidders have been advised to deposit Ksh5 million as the tussle to acquire the prime property heats up.
The Ksh257 million that GT is looking to recover is a fraction of the hotel's current market valuation, which is estimated to be around Ksh700 million.
Recent reports by real estate companies Cytonn and Hass Consult estimate the price of an acre in Westlands to be worth Ksh145 million and Ksh200 million respectively.
The hotel has been in a state of turmoil, with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) previously swarming the hotel with auctioneers to recover tax arrears totaling Ksh197 million in 2018.
However, the hotel's managers came to an amicable agreement with the taxman, leaving the hotel with its biggest problem: a raging fight between its owners and the people mandated with implementing the former politician's wishes.
The late minister's children, Lucy, Albert, and Samuel Karume, have since their father's death in 2012 held that the trustees he appointed have mismanaged the properties.
The trustees, Kung'u Gatabaki, George Waireri, and Margaret Nduta, maintain that the beneficiaries are 'hostile' and want to take control of the property outside the dictates of their father's wishes in the absence of a clear will.
