On Monday, relatives of a woman claiming ownership of a Sh1.5 billion property in Westlands said prophet David Awuor had dispossessed her through an elaborate scheme initiated in 2005.
The ‘mightiest Prophet of God’ who saved ODM leader Raila Odinga is embroiled in a vicious tussle with a family over the control and occupancy of the multi-storeyed apartments along upscale Rhapta Road in Westlands and the leafy suburb of Riverside Drive.
They accused the controversial prophet of continuing to pocket millions of shillings in monthly rent from the upscale apartments in what could lift the lid on the financing of Owuor’s flashy ministry.
At the heart of the dispute is a claim that the prophet and senior bishops in his church coerced the woman, identified as Jayne Muthoni, to appoint Owuor’s follower, Lilly Njage, as a co-director in Shaba Investment Limited, the registered owner of the flats.
To wrest the control of the multi-million-shilling property from Owuor, Muthoni’s relatives alleged that their relative was not of sound mind when she authorised Njage to manage her property.
They claimed the woman had been brainwashed and placed under the influence of unidentified drugs that could have caused memory loss.
“We want my sister’s property taken back to her. They forced her to appoint a co-director so that they can take control of the company. They have stolen from her. There is one transaction which I saw and more than Sh700 million was withdrawn from her bank account,” Muthoni’s brother Duncan Njagi said yesterday.
The Star reports that Njagi, who led other family members in storming the building to reclaim ownership, alleged that Owuor also moved into their sister’s palatial home along Riverside Drive and turned it into his private office and nerve centre for his church operations.
The home compound contains a swimming pool in which Owuor ‘dipped’ Raila in 2009. It is claimed that the Riverside home was at one point owned by former Internal Security minister Geoge Saitoti.
The brother revealed that the prophet moved out of the Riverside Drive residence hurriedly a few days ago after the family asked for the return of their sister’s property.
Another property — Dove Court Apartments in Westlands — was also taken over by the church and some rooms turned into bishops’ offices, the family claimed.
Njagi alleged that other rooms at the Dove Court Apartments were rented out and the money generated was used to finance the prophet’s lavish lifestyle.
But Owuor and the church, through lawyer Kimani Watenga, denied there was a plot to deceive Muthoni to surrender her property to the flamboyant prophet who has courted controversy in the past through his contentious prophesies.
In 2005 Owuor claimed that his god had told him that a massive earthquake was going to flatten Nairobi. Nothing happened.