Thuo Mathenge unfazed as debts threaten to bring down empire
Nyeri businessman Thuo Mathenge addresses a meeting in Nyeri Town on March 28, 2018. PHOTO | JOSEPH KANYI | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Mboi-Kamiti was founded in 1971 to settle labourers who had worked on settler farms and widows of Mau Mau freedom fighters.
- Mathenge attributes his failure to repay the loans to delayed payments by suppliers, which owe him more than Sh200m shillings.
When challenged to outline his economic manifesto during his 2013 campaigns for the Nyeri gubernatorial seat, industrialist and Mbo-i-Kamiti chairman Thuo Mathenge said something that sounded like braggadocio.
“I am the second largest employer in Nyeri County after the Catholic Church, and one of the biggest in Central,” he said. And he was right.
The politician had almost 2,000 employees, including casuals, in his real estate and industrial interests, which are worth billions of shillings.
Under the Brade Gate brand name, he owns a college, a resort, a wheat mill and bakery, chicken and chips outlets in five major towns and a chicken slaughter house that can handle 20,000 birds a day, among other investments.
Thousands of farmers supply his enterprises with chicken.
LOANS
But his empire is under assault from banks, amidst mountains of debt. So far, the banks are demanding close to Sh500 million from him.
Early this year, the Kenya Women Microfinance Bank (KWFT) towed his car, which one of his siblings was driving, in Nyeri Town.
Those that have filed cases in court to recover their cash include I&M Bank, Family Bank, and Jamii Bora, which he owes Sh95 million, Sh121 million and Sh80 million, respectively.
Their action forced Mr Mathenge to seek safety at the courts, which have however not been kind to him.
Two weeks ago, the Lands and Environment Court allowed I&M Bank and Garam Investment Auctioneers to sell one of Mr Mathenge’s parcels of land to recover the Sh95 million.
AUCTION
Lady Justice Lucy Waithaka dismissed an application by Mr Mathenge’s company, Bantu Africa Resort Ltd, seeking to permanently restrain I&M Bank and Garam Investment from advertising the sale or disposing of the property.
He had two cases against Jamii Bora Bank, both of which he has lost.
In the first, the bank wanted to auction his property for failure to repay Sh30 million.
He filed a lawsuit but Justice John Mativo allowed Jamii Bora and Valley Auctioneers to auction his poultry farm to recover the loan.
Jamii Bora is also selling his 1.9-hectare piece of land in Kirichu, on the Nyeri-Nanyuki Highway, where one of Mr Mathenge’s poultry businesses sit, over a Sh50 million loan.
INVESTMENT
In October last year, Mr Mathenge obtained orders from the Nyeri High Court stopping Family Bank from auctioning his land over the Sh121 million loan.
In a telephone interview, Mr Mathenge attributes his troubles to a bad economy and predatory banks that are colluding with the courts to run him out of business.
He cites the Sh800m hotel he is building in Nyeri, saying he owes the bank selling it less than Sh80m.
“They are colluding to take my property. I have invested Sh500m and the hotel is 70 per cent done. Why auction it for Sh200m when it is valued at Sh800m? They should give us time to pay,” he told the Nation.
He attributes his failure to repay the loans to delayed payments by suppliers, which owe him more than Sh200m shillings. But the industrialist is unfazed.
“What they want to sell is not even one per cent of my property. And they have undervalued them. Why are the courts allowing this?” the businessman, who claims to have settled some of the loans, asked.
POLITICS
Bankers who spoke to the Nation in confidence attribute Mr Mathenge’s legal troubles to his dalliance with politics.
“He took his eyes off the ball and borrowed too much. Then he diversified too fast without a proper plan,” a source who did not want to be quoted said.
But Mr Mathenge said the bankers missed the mark.
“What I used in politics is negligible. I also have shock absorbers and I have been through a lot in life. Losing an election cannot distract me,” he responded.
“There is nothing like diversifying too much. If you do not dream big, then you should not be in this world.
"We changed the rural economy and employ thousands. We deserve better treatment,” he added.
CHILDHOOD
Born in Nyeri 56 years ago, Mr Mathenge had a difficult childhood after his father was killed while fighting for independence and his mother detained.
“We were weak because our grandmother could not afford to give us three meals a day.
"At night, she gave us a sack to sleep in, and my siblings and I would share that sack. It was the bed, blanket and sheets,” he said in an earlier interview.
But after that, the details of his life get murky. Mr Mathenge claims to have secured a scholarship to study, and that he later worked in Eldoret and Kiambu.
But both the High Court and the appeal court have ruled that he falsified his degree.
“He did not attend classes at Fairland University and, therefore, the degree certificate awarded to him was not validly awarded. Mathenge was not eligible to run for the office of the governor,” Justice James Wakiaga ruled in 2013.
LAND COMPANY
But it was in Kiambu that he invested in a project that would earn him infamy and, pundits say, become political baggage every time he runs for office: Mbo-i-Kamiti, a land buying company founded in 1971 to settle labourers who had worked on settler farms and widows of Mau Mau freedom fighters.
In the ’90s, murder became a by-word for Mbo-i-Kamiti as rival directors, when not conniving to eliminate accountants and lawyers who refused to play ball, bumped each other off. Six directors were killed.
Mr Mathenge took over the firm’s chairmanship in 2017, and since then members have been getting their title deeds for the land, which is worth more than Sh7 billion.
To his credit, it is during his tenure that the land has been subdivided and members are getting title deeds.
And no deaths have occurred since he became chairman.
CAMPAIGN
But his association with the firm worked against him when he ran for the gubernatorial seat in 2013.
His rivals used it to paint him as an unscrupulous troublemaker, which he denied.
This is despite pointing out to voters that he was the only candidate who had invested heavily in Nyeri. Mr Nderitu Gachagua won that election.
His second attempt to capture the seat in 2017 ran into headwinds after the Jubilee Party rejected his application on the basis that he did not have a degree.
Mr Mathenge’s application as an independent candidate was also rejected by the IEBC.
RAILA ELDER
He backed the incumbent, Samuel Wamathai, but the Governor came second to Wahome Gakuru.
Mr Mathenge was also among a group of businessmen who wanted to install former Prime Minister Raila Odinga as a Kikuyu elder in 2009.
The plan was opposed by elected leaders in the region and subsequently shelved.
As he fights off one court case after another, one the biggest employers in central will be fighting, not for his business empire, but also to safeguard thousands of jobs.
“It shall pass. People should just relax and stop making a mountain out of a molehill,” he said.
