Special police ring acting on a tip off busts Tatu city gang as details emerge

Workers put up the Tatu City industrial park signage on April 22, 2015. How a multi-billion-shilling venture turned into a near fiasco is the story of raw power, power abuse, suspicion, mistrust and boardroom wars which spilt into courtrooms in both Nairobi and Mauritius. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA | NATION MEDIA GROUPTwenty-six kilometres north of Nairobi, a giant sign announces the entrance to Tatu City, a proposed 2,500-acre sprawling piece of real estate, which was expected to be a major satellite city but has instead turned into a massive tale of suspected graft and corporate intrigue.

Intrigues and controversy continue to unravel as Bidco chief executive Vimal Shah, former Central Bank of Kenya governor Nahashon Nyaga and a coffee farmer Stephen Mwagiru, lost controlling interests in the much touted Tatu City commercial venture.The investor has sworn to fight to the grave to ensure he gets his money back.

A gang said to be headed by a relative of one of Tatu City’s loser, Mwagiru, also believed to be close to Shah and Nyaga, have been busted by a special police ring acting on a tip off.Image result for tatu city scandal

Stephen Mbugua, a cousin of Mwagiru was arraigned in a Milimani Law Courts together with an alleged gang member Elijah Manyeki where they denied being in possession of assorted firearms at Tatu City where they were allegedly preparing to commit a felony.

The idea of a militia was mooted by a Mt Kenya tycoon who later unsuccessfully fought hard to have the suspects released by police.

It ought to be remembered that sometimes in April 2017, lawyer Ahmednasir Mohammed alleged the existence of a gang that had almost succeeded in assassinating him.
Unconfirmed reports have it Simon Gicharu is believed to have lost over Sh500 million when Shah, Nyaga and Mwagiru lost controlling interests in Tatu City, and he has vowed to fight to the end to ensure he gets his money back to the last coin.

Nyagah, Shah and Mwagiru were fined Sh1.7 billion by a London court in a fraud claim surrounding the multi-billion-shilling Tatu City project ownership.

A London Court of International Arbitration found them dishonestly claiming to have paid Sh2 billion to Kofinaf Estate. The ruling is said to have shocked Gicharu and left him in tatters.

The landmark award by the court’s sole arbitrator Simon Nesbitt QC, settled the dispute over the ownership saga.

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The arbitrator further ordered Shah, Nyaga and Mwagiru to pay interests on the sum of money from 2008 and the cost of arbitration, which brings the total to Sh1.7 billion.

The court then ruled that the three were unable to demonstrate that they paid any money to either Rendeavour or to Socfinaf, the previous owner of over 10,000 acres of Kiambu land acquired by Rendeavour.

The arbitrators further found that Shah, Nyaga and Mwagiru lied to Jennings that his deposits for Tatu City were discounted.

The arbitrator dismissed Shah’s statements of defence, ruling that he was not in a position to attribute any significance to the businessman’s recollection of a telephone conversation with one of the solicitors for payment of some deposits.

After the London court ruling, the trio have decided to fight back and sabotage the project using all means at their disposal. Petitions have been filed in parliament and even gangs engaged. Sometimes back, a group of families from Githunguri, Kiambu county, was recruited and paid to lay claim to the land. Kenya Revenue Authority has also been sucked into the wars only to clear the investors as tax complaint.

The families petitioned the national assembly to investigate and suggest a remedy to “an illegality and historical injustices” inflicted on them by the firm’s majority shareholders.
Money exchanged hands to have the petitioners, who claimed to be shareholders in two companies that own 13,600 acres – part of which was allocated to Tatu City – to hold a demonstration at Kwa Maiko trading centre to get the government to address the issue and take appropriate measures.

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They demanded, among other things, that any further activity on the land in question be stopped until the matter is determined and the appropriate legal action taken, saying it is the only way to ensure they get justice.
They said they bought shares from the two companies – Tatu City Ltd and Kafinaf Company Ltd – in 2007 for Sh200 each, at the firms’ invitation but they could not prove when challenged.

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They said that they were made to believe that the shares would eventually allow them to own the land belonging to the companies, adding that nearly 1,000 families invested in the shares.

Back to the London court ruling, Jennings is fully recognised as the founder and CEO of Rendeavour, the largest shareholder in Tatu City, and his international partners paid for all the land on which Tatu City is located in 2008.

This is after; Shah, Nyagah and Mwagiru were unable to demonstrate that they paid any money to either Rendeavour or to Socfinaf, the previous owner of over 10,000 acres of Kiambu land acquired by Rendeavour.

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