Thursday, March 28, 2024

Gakuyo accused of defrauding over 7,000 aspiring home owners

Barely two weeks after real estate firm Simple Homes was exposed as a scam, another saga has emerged, this time involving the popular Gakuyo Real Estate firm. According to media reports, at least 7,000 Kenyans might have been duped into investing with Gakuyo under the firm’s Ekeza Sacco.

Nonetheless, the allegations against Gakuyo founder ‘Bishop’ David Ngari Gakuyo have also taken a political tone, with the Bishop alleging that the claims are a smear campaign that is being spearheaded by his political rivals in Kiambu. The bishop who founded his church, Thika Calvary Chosen Centre, in 2001 is vying for the Kiambu Governor’s seat.

The saga all started following a beef between Gakuyo and popular Kikuyu presenter Njogu wa Njoroge. While appearing at Njogu’s former station Kameme FM, Gakuyo accused the former employee of failing to honour payments for several plots he acquired from Gakuyo. He further alleged that he had been bailing out Njogu from numerous women whom Njogu had gotten into trouble with. Gakuyo further alleged that Njogu was bitter because Gakuyo had refused to take advertising to his new station. Njogu then went on his Facebook page and counter accused the director of Gakuyo Real Estate.

Incidentally, Njogu is alleged to have been a previous vocal marketer of the Gakuyo deals, and his former show at Kameme is said to have been widely sponsored by Gakuyo.

However, according to the Standard newspaper, aspiring home owners who have invested close to Sh. 3 billion at Gakuyo might be staring at another major real estate scam.

The property firm’s 2015’s audited financial records show that aspiring home owners had cumulatively saved Sh. 316.5 million with Gakuyo.

Apparently, to join the housing scheme, prospective home buyers are required to deposit a minimum of Sh10,000 as booking fee. Once this is done, they can now start saving continuously with the sacco under the scheme christened Gakuyo Zero Deposit (G zero D) programme. Currently, A little over Sh100 million has been paid by the buyers as booking fees alone, an amount Ngari described as too small for his interest.

“I have many parcels of land where I will eventually build thousands of homes for all the poor people who registered with me,” he told the Standard, adding that he had enough money to put up 5,000 homes as promised but warned it could take more than three years to complete. The initial promise was 12 months.

Investors with Gakuyo have raised concerns that some of the parcels of land they have been taken to for site visiting are not developed at all, contrary to what they had been promised when they invested their money.

Connect With Us

320,545FansLike
14,108FollowersFollow
8,436FollowersFollow
1,880SubscribersSubscribe

Latest Stories

Related Stories