Several messages have been doing rounds on social media accusing Banda Homes Limited of shortchanging their buyers.
The developer was accused of failing to deliver homes to buyers despite having received deposits amounting to Sh1.5 billion since last year.
However as the mystery surrounding the real estate developer takes charge, a businesswoman Kathleen Kihanya, a member of the Kenyatta family, has kicked off a storm over ownership of prime land on which a developer is putting up a Sh1 billion estate for sale.
Ms Kihanya, who is President Uhuru Kenyatta’s cousin, claimed Banda Homes had misled potential buyers on the land, a claim the investors strongly disputed.
Banda Homes is developing 120 units of three-bedroomed bungalows on Kenyatta Road, on a 20-acre piece of land about three kilometers from the Thika Superhighway, which it has been advertising.
The firm, the reports claimed, has re-branded at least two times since 2011, during which it has acquired new names to avoid being followed by clients after allegedly failing to deliver on projects.
In a rejoinder, Fabian Nzivo, the company’s CEO, said reports that they had diverted the money collected from clients to other projects was a propaganda being propagated by their business rivals.He said all their housing projects were on course and would be completed within the stipulated time.On rebranding accusations, he said: “Banda Homes Limited was incorporated in January last year. It is a company on its own and the companies mentioned in the reports going around all have functioning offices.”
“This land belongs to my family and we are now in the process of subdivision and issuing separate titles,” Ms Kihanya told the Business Daily in a statement.
“Banda purports to have an agreement to buy part of this land, which is not possible because there is no title. They have erected a sale sign on the land and they are collecting deposits from people. My family had no idea,” she said.
Ms Kihanya warned buyers to conduct due diligence before purchasing the property.
“They are selling land that they don’t have yet. Are they disclosing to the public the true facts? How can they honestly sell something they don’t have?” she posed.
Banda Homes director Paul Nderitu, however, dismissed Ms Kihanya’s claims as “malicious” maintaining that the developer had purchased the land from another Kenyatta kin, Kamau Ngengi.
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