Why Integrity Centre was sold
What you need to know:
- EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo has, in a report handed over to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, explained the circumstances under which the property ended up with Tegus Ltd.
- The building had been charged to the Deposit Protection Fund because it was owned by Revack Ltd, a company that owed Trust Finance Ltd Sh152.5 million. Trust Finance was owned by the collapsed Trade Bank.
- Revack paid Sh115 million to the Deposit Protection Fund after its owners argued that this would be added to the Sh356.8 million collected as rent since September 1998.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission has cleared the sale of Integrity Centre to a company associated with a city lawyer, which paid Sh115 million to free it from the Deposit Protection Fund.
EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo has, in a report handed over to the Justice and Legal Affairs Committee, explained the circumstances under which the property ended up with Tegus Ltd.
The building had been charged to the Deposit Protection Fund because it was owned by Revack Ltd, a company that owed Trust Finance Ltd Sh152.5 million. Trust Finance was owned by the collapsed Trade Bank.
Revack paid Sh115 million to the Deposit Protection Fund after its owners argued that this would be added to the Sh356.8 million collected as rent since September 1998.
Revack had initially wanted to pay Sh80 million and attempts to sell the property failed because of uncertainty on whether the lease given in 1931 would be renewed.
This means that the total amount recovered from Revack is Sh471.8 million, said Mr Waqo.
“Following this settlement, the Deposit Protection Fund board proceeded to lift the receivership and to discharge the property.
The documents of ownership were released to Revack Ltd,” Mr Halakhe said in the report. “Revack then transferred the property to Tegus Ltd in a Sh400 million deal,” he added.
In documents submitted to the committee earlier, the Registrar of Companies identified the shareholders of Tegus as companies called Watuwatu Ltd and Sunnex Enterprises Ltd, with a Rachel Wanjugu Muthui and Anish Doshi as directors and minority shareholders.
Watuwatu and Sunnex own 49 shares each while Ms Muthui and Mr Doshi own one share each.
Watuwatu Ltd is owned by lawyer Ahmed Adan and Ms Asma Ahmed Adan. Both Tegus Ltd and Watuwatu Ltd were registered on the same date — March 13, 2013, and are situated at the same address, Bruce House on Standard Street in Nairobi. But EACC did not name the owners of Sunnex Enterprises, which the committee chaired by Ainabkoi MP Samuel Chepkong’a has been pushing it to do.
It did not also establish whether the Deposit Protection Fund took care of the interests of the depositors.
Mr Waqo also appeared to have glossed over the fact, also mentioned in the report, that as at August 2001, when Trust Bank was placed under liquidation, the charge over the land was Sh614.4 million.
This means that Revack Ltd owed the bank Sh614.4 million, four times more than the Sh152.5 million it had borrowed.
