Businessman man sues bank for seeking to sale his Sh25 billion estate

A governor aspirant has gone to court to stop a financial institution from auctioning his Sh25 billion estate.

Githinji Kinyanjui and his company, Green Africa International Ltd, accused Jamii Bora Bank of illegally seeking to sell the prime real estate in Nyeri town to settle a Sh369 million loan in violation of an agreement they had on how to settle the debt.

“We have at all times complied with the terms of the loan and were surprised when the bank put a caveat on the property warning members of the public not to purchase any portion of the estate, and put a notice of their intention to auction it,” said Mr Kinyanjui.

According to the businessman, the dispute dates back to March 2015, when his company wanted to buy land near Dedan Kimathi University to develop a gated community that would later be sold to the public.

Reached agreement

The land was valued at Sh1.3 billion but he could not raise the whole amount.

He approached the bank and reached an agreement for a Sh369 million loan that would be repaid once the land was sub-divided and developed, and portions sold to people.

Kinyanjui stated that after acquiring the land, he developed the Madiba Gardens gated community currently valued at Sh25 billion.

“The agreement was that we would sub-divide and develop the property, and use the sale proceeds to finance the loan. We were surprised when the bank engaged in malicious and unlawful acts to portray me and my company as loan defaulters.”

He further accused the bank of seeking to bar his candidature for the Nyeri governorship race by writing to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission and Jubilee Party to say that he could not be trusted to hold public office because he had failed to repay the loan.