In addition, the director affirmed that his company would eventually deliver to its customers under what he termed as the "right environment".
The media had reported growing concerns among its clients who hoped to at least get a refund of their money paid to acquire plots in various parts.
According to some of the reported cases, clients hoping to own land bought into the rigorous advertising campaigns ran by the company and paid the price tags placed on their desired properties, only to be taken through circles.
In one of the testimonies, a client told the Nation that he paid for a 40 by 80 feet piece of land- only to find out later that the land available on the ground was 30 by 76.
To complicate the situation further, the client revealed that the ownership of the land in question was contested by another person who claimed to own it legally.
Their predicaments went from bad to worse when the director, allegedly, opened another company with a different name.
So big was the financial enterprise that the company had an estimated asset base of Sh7.8 trillion with an annual turnover of over Sh10 trillion.
However, in December 2001, the company filed for bankruptcy. It later emerged that everything was made up after Fortune magazine exposed how Enron was engaging in financial misrepresentation by altering accounting records to mislead its investors and was engaging in insider trading.
Mr Kenneth Lay, the firm’s founder, was charged with six crimes including conspiracy and fraud but he died of a heart attack before being convicted. Mr Lay’s deceptive success inspired many emerging entrepreneurs who wanted to get rich quickly.
One of them is Mr Geoffrey Kiragu, the founder of Thika-based Lesedi Developers, a real estate company that has left potential land and homeowners vulnerable and with millions of shillings in bank loans to repay after selling non-existent plots in Juja, Kiambu and Nakuru.
“If you are a keen reader, perhaps you know the evolution of Enron Corporation. Its founder Kenneth Lay is one of the people who inspired me to start Lesedi Developers four years back. He may have his flaws but I borrow a lot of business lessons from him,’’ Mr Kiragu told Nation early last month in an interview when we reached out to him with claims that he had conned clients of Sh1 billion.
Mr Festus Waigwa Muraya, 38, from Nyeri, told Nation that he got to know Lesedi Developers through its aggressive social media marketing last year. It was fronted by famous influencers and through vernacular radio stations.
“I had no grounds to doubt them because the deal looked real and famous people were advertising their projects. I thought they had done due diligence on the company before embarking on influencing their fans to buy the property.
The down payment needed for a 40-by-80 [feet] plot in Muthaara, Juja Constituency, was also affordable because you only needed to pay Sh30,000 and clear the total cost of the land — that was Sh320,000 — within three months,” said Mr Muraya, who has been chasing after the company for a refund since last year.
He added: “Worse still, after completing paying for the land in March last year and visiting the plot that I had been shown and reassessing the land, I noticed that the plot was 30-by-76 and not 40-by-80 as agreed in the contract,’’ he notes. Buoyed by the same frenzied advertising, Mr Robert Kingori bought plot number 158 in Muthaara in Juja, Kiambu County, from Lesedi Developers in April last year.
It was to measure 40-by-80 but, after completing paying for the land in full, he has neither been issued with a title deed nor the full refund that the company had promised to do for dissatisfied investors, him being among them.
Ms Elizabeth Wanjiku looks pensively at the agreement she entered with Lesedi Developers for a 40-by-80 plot in early April last year. She had paid Sh350, 000 and hoped to settle with her family.
Hopeful that she would be issued with a title deed and start building, she later learnt that the land she was shown was double allocated to another person and was being contested.
Ms Fidelis Njeri Thuku is a mother who hoped she would stop paying rent before the end of 2021. She secured a loan to accomplish her ambition of owning a house.
She signed a contract with Lesedi Developers in which the company was to build her a two-bedroom bungalow in Jacaranda Ridge Estate, a residential development in Muthaara in Juja.
She paid Sh1.8 million but the company has never delivered. She was promised a refund, but the company has been writing her bad cheques, all of which have bounced.
“The company has reimbursed zero shillings to me so far. I have had issues repaying my loan and meeting my daily obligations and it’s so sad that the company continues to keep me waiting. I want them to return my money without further delays to enable me to settle elsewhere,” Ms Njeri said.
No comments:
Post a Comment