Fraudster and untouchable conman Amos Ngonjo outside his home in Vipingo Ridge, one of Kenya's premier golf estate [Photo: Courtesy]When one looks at the many con games that have been played on Kenyans in the name of property development, one wonders when these unscrupulous people will be charged.
When will justice ever be served for these many financial crimes?
In 2012, a company called Enaai advertised a Golf Course estate development project. It was a glitzy advertisement and the location for the project was Nanyuki.
They attracted various buyers for the 1 to 1.5 acre lands which they sold at between Sh1 – Sh3.5 million per acre. Some of the buyers even paid Sh9 million for a 2-acre piece of land just to be in ‘the next big thing’.
Cecilian Kimwana was the lady handling office administration works and marketing. The payments were made to Kamondo Gachoka, who has since become a Judge at the Judiciary of Kenya.
To make the con look good, when buyers inquired about the project’s progress, some few equipments were brought on site which were later carted away. Clients complained of directors being rude when called.
Frustrated, one of the buyers sued the directors in a civil case and was awarded payment refund plus damages by a Nyeri court, however, to date no payment has been made. This shows that these cons are untouchable.
Buyers contacted each other and formed a WhatsApp group, some of them are lawyers. They discussed a lot of issues regarding their predicament.
An advert on the Daily Nation stating that the Ennai land was to be auctioned opened a can of worms on the ownership of the land.
It emerged that the directors took a loan of Sh200 million with the piece of land for project. Lawyers released funds to them erroneously, they used the project land title as collateral.
It was also found out that they had no intention of doing any project in the first place. They had used the Sh1 million and Sh2 million to buy land cheaply, they duped clients and the bank by building a mock house about the project. They hyped the project, and overvalued it on paper, then used the project as collateral for a huge amounting to the aforementioned Sh200 million.
The conned clients having exhausted the available option went to report the issue at the Kilimani DCIO. The directors, Rama and Gichuhi, were summoned to appear before the police. However, the main guy going by the name Amos did not appear, he is the untouchable guy who was also very rude to DCIO.
DCIO confirmed the case to be a criminal one; that of obtaining by false pretense.
The police appointed a Mr Bashir as the investigation officer. Mr Bashir turned rude to clients in subsequent visits.
The case got cold.
So, Kenyans this is how the game is done:
“Advertise land with project, fools pay up. Use the collateral to get an even higher amount, with this one can buy the system.
Amos Ngonjo has done the same and might be having an insider in these banks, and of course hosting baba in his offices. A new con being hatched Currently, the architects of the above congame are on another one. A leather tannery is being built by Bonfide Group