Embattled Kiambu televangelist-cum-politician David Kariuki Ngare alias Gakuyo is yet again in a new controversy.
This time around, Gakuyo has been roped into a questionable land sale where the government is implementing a Ksh800 million land project.
The State through Murang’a County Government is reportedly said to have purchased a piece of land from Chosen Builders Investments.
Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) have linked the company to Gakuyo according to Daily Nation.
The Murang’a County Government is said to have acquired the 50-acre parcel of land in 2017 at an agreed cost of Ksh134 million.
Ksh53 million was paid in the first trench and the balance cleared in the second payment in January 2018.
However, the Assets Recovery Agency (ARA) Director Alice Mate has raised a red flag saying that the title deed for the land has never been issued two years later.
Mate said that this puts the Ksh800 million waste management project in jeopardy.
The World Bank had funded the project according to government sources but everything risks going to the drain without the title deed to the land.
“The payment to the controversial company was made in two trenches with the first batch of Sh. 53 million being paid out in 2017 and the balance offset in January 2018,” ARA said in a report.
Gakuyo was in the limelight two years ago following losses at Ekeza Sacco where he was the proprietor.
Ekeza Sacco wooed Kenyan investors with the dream of affordable housing. Investors trooped in thousands and invested with the Sacco in the hope of owning a home.
His other company Gakuyo Real Estate executed the development of the plots purchased by the developers.
Years later, it emerged that Gakuyo moved billions from the Ekeza Sacco to his personal account. He used part of this money to fund his luxurious lifestyle and a string of multi-million-shilling property in Thika and Nairobi.
He is yet to refund this money to the investors.
