Embattled tycoon in luxury Kiambu real estate plan
A section of Edenville in Kiambu County. James Kinyanjui claims to own Edenville Estate. PHOTO | FILE
What you need to know:
Edenville Estate will see the development of three and four-bedroom maisonettes on a 42-acre piece of land.
The three bedroomed villas dubbed the Magnolia Maisonettes will each go for Sh16.95 million.
EdenVille’s four-bedroom houses, the Wisteria Maisonettes, will each sell for Sh18.45 million.
A company associated with embattled business tycoon James Samuel Kinyanjui has started building phase two of a luxury houses estate along Kiambu Road.
Edenville Estate, which Mr Kinyanjui claims to own in court papers, will see the development of three and four-bedroom maisonettes on a 42-acre piece of land.
Mr Kinyanjui in a court case against the Banking Fraud Investigation Unit (BFIU) held that he owns the luxury EdenVille Estate. The businessman is in the suit trying to block the BFIU from freezing his bank accounts and assets for alleged involvement in money laundering.
He also claims to have founded Geminia Insurance. He however sold his shares in the company and ceased being a director in 2013.
The BFIU froze Mr Kinyanjui’s accounts after flagging bank transactions between the tycoon and a suspected West African scammer called Nathan Yobana, whose nationality is not known.
The three bedroomed villas dubbed the Magnolia Maisonettes will each go for Sh16.95 million. EdenVille’s four-bedroom houses, the Wisteria Maisonettes, will each sell for Sh18.45 million.
Mr Kinyanjui in the suit held that he received a Sh2 billion from the Nigerian government in 1999 as payment for a tender to supply oil mining equipment, and that he used the funds to expand his business empire through investments like EdenVille.
But the BFIU suspects that he has been laundering large sums of cash and wants his bankers to help investigate the allegations.
The businessman allegedly sent Sh150 million to Mr Yobana’s accounts in small installments between April and September last year.
He however insists in court filings that his businesses are legitimate and that the BFIU freeze on his accounts was done out of malice, as he has always had successful enterprises in Nigeria, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mr Kinyanjui says he was not given an opportunity to respond to the allegations before the BFIU ordered for a freeze on his accounts.
“I raised this matter initially with the respondents who have failed to either stop the harassment or undertake the necessary legal process as designed by law or discharge me. The result is my property worth millions of shillings has been frozen and is likely to result in untold suffering,” Mr Kinyanjui said.
EdenVille last week advertised the commencement of construction of phase two, but did not specify when the gated community will be completed.
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