HF Group, once a bastion of hope for thousands of long-suffering borrowers in the real estate market, but weighed down by mismanagement by Frank Ireri and Sam Waweru, begun to make changes after consistent exposes from this site that revealed that changes can only happen from the top.
After an ill-advised retrenchment process that saw only staff who were not Embu’s or close to Sam Waweru being laid off, the impact on the business was felt immediately after a significant amount of customers let, fraud levels hit astonishing levels and the mortgage company stopped lending altogether.
The process was largely carried out by Ben Lanya, the Sex pest and rapist who was finally fired after his demands for ‘sex for jobs’ was finally cut short. This was after complaints became numerous and could not be hushed any longer, after ladies in the company came together and launched formal complaints which were initially ignored by the board, even female members but reached a crescendo when he was recorded demanding for a taste of the forbidden fruit.
A full expose will be carried by this website soon.
The sleepy ignorant board, which was largely under the control of senior management, finally recognised what its role was and informed Frank Ireri to begin relinquishing most of his key roles.
However, the media was fed a distorted story about his imminent departure after ten months. Pundits wondered since when did employees give a 10-month notice.
It remains to be seen how Frank Ireri, the largest single shareholder after manipulating the Employee Share Option Scheme to his favour, will act when shareholders are called upon to vote for board members. We expect Frank Ireri to later be called upon to join the Board.
On 31st May 2018, Caroline Armstrong and 2 General Managers were shown the door.
Caroline Armstrong, who until then was the Strategic Director, was finally axed after the board finally recognised that the system it acquired was bought at an inflated price, did not add much value to the business as continuous investment was required, and her role had since been watered down after most of her functions were taken over by the new IT Director. nyakundireport.com exposed the system saga that shook corporate Nairobi and the HF Group foundations.
https://nyakundireport.com/kshs-2-billion-scandal-at-housing-finance-in-bogus-it-procurement-scam/
In addition, Caroline Armstrong, who is also a member of the Kenya Airways board, had a love-hate relationship with the board and attempts to fire her in the past after her less than stellar performance in previous roles in Operations and Credit, was frustrated by Frank Ireri.
The couple shared history together having worked in Barclays Bank and Citibank together, Armstrong joining Ireri after he was appointed by the board. At one time, after the board demanded her dismissal, Ireri indicated he would also quit if she left.
This time around, the board would have none of it and the decision was made. Frank was left to deliver the bad news.
The board decided to make changes to try and stem the losses after revelations made by the former Credit Director, Kevin Isika, revealed an institution in tatters.
Expectations are that Sam Waweru will depart after revelations came out that he gave customers discounts in exchange for kickbacks.
His leadership has also been wanting after beginning an aggressive expansion programme seeing branches opened and later closed, yet over 95% of HF’s business was in one branch.
He was responsible for allowing inexperienced Branch Manager to lend, countermanding objections from the Credit Division, which also heavily contributed to the bad debts and Frauds when numerous branch managers gave loans to entities associated with them.
He also began a programme of frustrating and later dismissing all employees associated with Timothy Gitonga, who was responsible for HF group previous profits. He is quoted as saying, that he has a bullet to take care of Gitonga’ s people.
It is also expected that James Karanja, MD of HFDI, formerly Building Society will be shown the door. Karanja’s leadership has resulted in HFDI unable to pay its debts. HFDI had always been the conduit for theft of funds from HFC. The funds were used to construct ill-fated projects due to Karanja, Waweru and Ireri’s involvement us paper suppliers for materials at inflated prices.
Projects like Komarock have virtually stalled after CM Construction, the contractor, involved in fraud had also constructed the houses for Karanja and Frank, taking over the site after he was not paid.
Other projects like the Joint Venture with Peter Munga in Ruiru have drained the subsidiaries financing. The project has been hidden from the Central Bank of Kenya and was only recently reported after CBKs investigation. HFDI has already defaulted on its loan obligations with I&M and Shelter Afrique.
It is also hoped that Joseph Ngare, the Head of Internal Audit, another sex pest, responsible for interns quitting after continued sexual advances will also be kicked out. Largely responsible for hiding or downplaying frauds from the board, bribing CBK inspectors and covering up investigations of fraud by staff with the help of Waweru and Ireri. He has also brought in fraudulent borrowers and is also responsible for some of the biggest fraudulent accounts.
It is expected that further revelations will be made once the hearing of the Director’s employment dispute with HF group resumes. We will, of course, keep you updated, since the corporate media, whose senior managers, having benefitted from huge loans from HF, have shied away from the story, using the ridiculous gag order as an excuse.
It is time the corporate media was exposed for its complicity in covering up scandals through bribes and kickbacks, including but not limited to the real perpetrators of NYS scandal, NBK and NCPB.