When it comes to the production and supply of fraud artists in financial markets, Kenya is prolific. The supply lines are ever busy and the country stands head and shoulder above other pretenders in eastern Africa.

The smooth talkers come in all shapes and sizes – even shades! The tales of financial and business skylarks in Kenya are titillating. The artists are equipped with the latest and trendiest idioms in the market and catch phrases in the social and fiscal realms. The ecosystems, you know! Beneath the gift of the gab, are skylarks – miles up there waiting to pounce when they deem it appropriate and fleece their prey.

Well, tall lies are the fodder the on which Kenyan economy feeds. This encapsulates the manner in which some nondescript liars sucked a white New Zealander into a fictitious project that made headlines, casting Nairobi and its environs as a metropolis that was turning a corner and was finally embracing order and orderliness in the classical sense of humanity.

Void!

New Zealander Stephen Jennings is among the richest individuals who own firms worth trillions in Kenya. But before Jennings came to Kenya, his early life was marred by a lot of controversies, with reports indicating that he escaped from Russia.

The Kenyans conned the mzungu after mooting the fanciful Tatu City idea. The country was hooked on the exclusivity of the ‘city within a city’ idea. A forensic audit of the idea established ‘tale of ghost deposits and legal reckoning’ that had echoes of Tower of Babel.

It turned out Tatu City was a flight of fancy that was conceived by some “three musketeers” – all governors of different shades – to swindle unsuspecting investors.

To my 30,000 followers on media platforms I invite you now to be my guests in the dissection of one the biggest and storied boardroom wars in Kenyan financial fiddling history. This is the case of international capital versus local “kosokoso.” The architects and executors of the war were prominent business (if you can call serial lying is business). Here we go:

The Newsie: Stephen Jennings (CEO of Rendeavour).

The Bidco Dude: Vimal Shah.

The CBK Guy: Nahashon Nyagah (former Central Bank of Kenya governor).

Note that I have deliberately used the terms ‘newsie’, ‘dude’ and ‘guy’ to refer  to the protagonists in the Tatu City swindle. The words are slangy or colloquial and often used in inner cities by low downs. Here the words are deliberately intended to capture the dishonourable image of the actors-in-chief that wowed and awed Kenyans with their business acumen – publicly.

They crafted a porky lie, which they peddled suavely at home and abroad. At some point they cast it as they brainchild former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family. Like all ‘Smart Alekcs’, they had to create some believability. It is the nature of name droppers. At some point, they appeared to have achieved the feat and were on roll – until the Kenyatta family gave it with a wide berth. The bubble burst. Phew!

A forensic audit ordered by a London court into Tatu City dream retuned the following findings:

• The two billion shilling ($15.5 million) lie: In 2008, the Kenyan duo (Vimal and Nyagah) approached Jennings to buy 10,000 acres of land in Kiambu town – some 10 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi. They claimed that they had already paid a Ksh2 billion ($15.5 million) deposit for the property.

Audit findings: They hadn’t paid a cent! It was a “Ghost Deposit” designed to trick Jennings into bringing in real money. Jennings actually ended up – inadvertently – “lending” them money just to keep them in the deal.

• The London hammer: When the “flesh” of the deal rotted, the battle moved to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).
• Court verdict: In 2018, the court found the Kenyan ‘partners-in-crime’ guilty of “dishonesty and misrepresentation.” In ordinary parlance, Vimal and Nyagah were white-collar thieves.
• The fine: They were ordered to pay Jennings Ksh1.7 billion ($13.2 million) in damages. The court proved Vimal Shah only invested about $289,000 (Ksh37.31 million) – less than 1 per cent – despite acting like the Sovereign Owner. Sovereign owner is legalese for “self-ownership or sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty.”

It is the concept of property in one’s own person expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller of one’s own body, life and property.

In matter before the London court, Vimal was adjudged to lack sovereign ownership of the property in Kiambu.

• The forgery jeggings: In a desperate move, the local partners tried to fraudulently transfer Ksh5.3 billion ($41.1 million) worth of land to their relatives using forged documents. They even hired a handwriting “expert” to frame Jennings but the “Lamps and Clocks” of forensic science proved the newsie’s signatures were 100 per cent genuine.

In referring to the Kenyans as newsies – a terminology borrowed from the news industry used in the 20^th century to describe “struggling newspaper hawkers” or vendors – the court drove the point home they were irretrievably chronic liars incapable of incoherent story.

4. The recovery: Jennings did not wait for the “administrative mediocrity” of local politics. He got the national government to declare Tatu City a special planning area, bypassing governors like Ferdinand Waititu and William Kabogo who were allegedly salivating for pork in the form of “cuts” and “favours.”

The lesson: In this laboratory of life, arrogance meets its match in forensic documentation. Whether you are buying a parcel of land in Kamulu or building a city in Ruiru, never trust a “partner” who cannot show you the bank statement for their “deposit.”

Dignity is in the details. Integrity is in the paper trail.

• A Tell Media report / By Faith Mirunde Hakala – a long serving paralegal in Kenyan judiciary.

When it comes to the production and supply of fraud artists in financial markets, Kenya is prolific. The supply lines are ever busy and the country stands head and shoulder above other pretenders in eastern Africa.

The smooth talkers come in all shapes and sizes – even shades! The tales of financial and business skylarks in Kenya are titillating. The artists are equipped with the latest and trendiest idioms in the market and catch phrases in the social and fiscal realms. The ecosystems, you know! Beneath the gift of the gab, are skylarks – miles up there waiting to pounce when they deem it appropriate and fleece their prey.

Well, tall lies are the fodder the on which Kenyan economy feeds. This encapsulates the manner in which some nondescript liars sucked a white New Zealander into a fictitious project that made headlines, casting Nairobi and its environs as a metropolis that was turning a corner and was finally embracing order and orderliness in the classical sense of humanity.

Void!

New Zealander Stephen Jennings is among the richest individuals who own firms worth trillions in Kenya. But before Jennings came to Kenya, his early life was marred by a lot of controversies, with reports indicating that he escaped from Russia.

The Kenyans conned the mzungu after mooting the fanciful Tatu City idea. The country was hooked on the exclusivity of the ‘city within a city’ idea. A forensic audit of the idea established ‘tale of ghost deposits and legal reckoning’ that had echoes of Tower of Babel.

It turned out Tatu City was a flight of fancy that was conceived by some “three musketeers” – all governors of different shades – to swindle unsuspecting investors.

To my 30,000 followers on media platforms I invite you now to be my guests in the dissection of one the biggest and storied boardroom wars in Kenyan financial fiddling history. This is the case of international capital versus local “kosokoso.” The architects and executors of the war were prominent business (if you can call serial lying is business). Here we go:

The Newsie: Stephen Jennings (CEO of Rendeavour).

The Bidco Dude: Vimal Shah.

The CBK Guy: Nahashon Nyagah (former Central Bank of Kenya governor).

Note that I have deliberately used the terms ‘newsie’, ‘dude’ and ‘guy’ to refer  to the protagonists in the Tatu City swindle. The words are slangy or colloquial and often used in inner cities by low downs. Here the words are deliberately intended to capture the dishonourable image of the actors-in-chief that wowed and awed Kenyans with their business acumen – publicly.

They crafted a porky lie, which they peddled suavely at home and abroad. At some point they cast it as they brainchild former President Uhuru Kenyatta’s family. Like all ‘Smart Alekcs’, they had to create some believability. It is the nature of name droppers. At some point, they appeared to have achieved the feat and were on roll – until the Kenyatta family gave it with a wide berth. The bubble burst. Phew!

A forensic audit ordered by a London court into Tatu City dream retuned the following findings:

• The two billion shilling ($15.5 million) lie: In 2008, the Kenyan duo (Vimal and Nyagah) approached Jennings to buy 10,000 acres of land in Kiambu town – some 10 kilometres from the capital, Nairobi. They claimed that they had already paid a Ksh2 billion ($15.5 million) deposit for the property.

Audit findings: They hadn’t paid a cent! It was a “Ghost Deposit” designed to trick Jennings into bringing in real money. Jennings actually ended up – inadvertently – “lending” them money just to keep them in the deal.

• The London hammer: When the “flesh” of the deal rotted, the battle moved to the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA).
• Court verdict: In 2018, the court found the Kenyan ‘partners-in-crime’ guilty of “dishonesty and misrepresentation.” In ordinary parlance, Vimal and Nyagah were white-collar thieves.
• The fine: They were ordered to pay Jennings Ksh1.7 billion ($13.2 million) in damages. The court proved Vimal Shah only invested about $289,000 (Ksh37.31 million) – less than 1 per cent – despite acting like the Sovereign Owner. Sovereign owner is legalese for “self-ownership or sovereignty of the individual or individual sovereignty.”

It is the concept of property in one’s own person expressed as the moral or natural right of a person to have bodily integrity and be the exclusive controller of one’s own body, life and property.

In matter before the London court, Vimal was adjudged to lack sovereign ownership of the property in Kiambu.

• The forgery jeggings: In a desperate move, the local partners tried to fraudulently transfer Ksh5.3 billion ($41.1 million) worth of land to their relatives using forged documents. They even hired a handwriting “expert” to frame Jennings but the “Lamps and Clocks” of forensic science proved the newsie’s signatures were 100 per cent genuine.

In referring to the Kenyans as newsies – a terminology borrowed from the news industry used in the 20^th century to describe “struggling newspaper hawkers” or vendors – the court drove the point home they were irretrievably chronic liars incapable of incoherent story.

4. The recovery: Jennings did not wait for the “administrative mediocrity” of local politics. He got the national government to declare Tatu City a special planning area, bypassing governors like Ferdinand Waititu and William Kabogo who were allegedly salivating for pork in the form of “cuts” and “favours.”

The lesson: In this laboratory of life, arrogance meets its match in forensic documentation. Whether you are buying a parcel of land in Kamulu or building a city in Ruiru, never trust a “partner” who cannot show you the bank statement for their “deposit.”

Dignity is in the details. Integrity is in the paper trail.

• A Tell Media report / By Faith Mirunde Hakala – a long serving paralegal in Kenyan judiciary.