Celebrated Kenyan journalist Jeff Koinanage has saved his posh residence in Kitusuru which had been on the auctioneer’s radar.
Garam Investments had been contracted by NCBA Bank to auction Koinange’s two posh villas in Kitisuru suburbs of Nairobi over Sh130 million defaulted loan.
The two villas, one of which Koinange reportedly lives in, are valued at Ksh200 million.
However, he reached a new loan deal with the bank which stopped the auction of the houses. Garam investments was ready to auction the houses on Tuesday before the bank stopped it.
“NCBA reached a last-minute agreement with him (Mr Koinange) and the auction was stopped. We got the notice to stop the public auction this morning, but we were already prepared for the sale,” a source at the auctioneering who requested not to be named intimated.
In its advertisement for auction, the auctioneer asked prospective investors to bid by depositing at least Ksh5 million in the bank.
The source at the firm said that several investors had already done this before the bank called off the auction.
Koinange is among the best-paid media personalities in the country given his wealth of experience in the field and the clout that his JKL show wields on Citizen TV.
He is also a former CNN journalist.
The two villas sit on 0.67 hectares of land. Each of them has a detached servant quarter.
Koinange had stored artworks in one of the villas before renting it out.
