Parliament in fresh bid to unmask shadowy Integrity Centre owners

The identity of a shadowy landlord who acquired the Integrity Centre from public hands is set to come to light this week as Parliament moves to unravel the controversial transaction.

The National Assembly’s Justice and Legal Affairs Committee has given the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) up to 10am on Friday to submit documentation in support of a Sh115 million transaction that saw Integrity House change hands.

The EACC officials appeared before the committee Tuesday to shed light on the controversial transfer of the property which also houses its headquarters.

In its report, the EACC said it cleared the sale of the building to Tegus Ltd after another company, Revack Limited, paid Sh115 million to the Deposit Protection Fund to discharge it.

At some point, the new owners of the building gave the anti-graft agency up to June 30 to vacate its premises but a secret deal was later struck to extend the lease period by three years. The EACC has tightly guarded the identity of the building’s new owners and those who transferred it to them.

READ: EACC handed new office lease by its shadowy landlord

Tuesday, the House committee asked the EACC to submit the last two month-statements of the receivership account as well as details of the negotiations.

“We require documentation in support of the in duplum rule (principle that interest rate should not exceed the amount borrowed) so we are satisfied that the correct procedures were followed and the fair decisions made,” said committee chairman Samuel Chepkong’a.

He said the documents were crucial because there was no evidence showing that depositors had been paid.

In June 1999, the Central Bank of Kenya appointed receiver managers to collect the property’s rent and remit it to Trust Bank Limited, through an account at the Commercial Bank of Africa.

In August 2001, Trust Bank was placed under liquidation at a time when the charge in favour of Trust Finance Limited over the property stood at Sh614.4 million.

According to EACC the outstanding amount in the account with the Deposit Protection Fund as at April 2, 2013 when negotiations started was Sh813 million.

The property had been charged to the Deposit Protection Fund because it was owned by Revack Limited, a company that owed Trust Finance Sh152.5 million. Trust Finance was owned by the collapsed Trade Bank.

“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 Limited,” EACC chief executive Halakhe Waqo said in the report.

Revack paid Sh115 million to the fund after its owners argued that this would be added to Sh356.8 million collected as rent since September 1998.