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Public whistleblower Nelson Amenya is the latest victim of a housing scam. Amenya is the Kenyan man who gained fame after lifting the lid on the secret takeover of the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport by Indian conglomerate Adani Group that had been planned by the William Ruto government.
Amenya says that he was conned USD10,000 (approximately Sh1.3 million) by a Kenyan residing in the United States. He identified the Kenyan as one David Manini. According to the JKIA whistleblower, Manini had lured him under the guise of an ambitious affordable housing project that he was launching in the United States.
Nelson Amenya met David Manini in early 2025 through a mutual friend known as Sammy who also lives in the United States. “It was around February-March this year. I was speaking to Sammy who is like a brother to me. We grew up together and have known each other for a long time,” said Amenya.
In one of their casual catchup calls, Sammy mentioned that there was a guy from Harvard University who had just finished his MPA [Master of Public Administration] and he was launching a housing startup through which he would build affordable housing in the U.S.
Sammy went on to tell Amenya that the guy from Harvard – who turned out to be David Manini – had already gotten MassHousing interested and were willing to fund the project. However, there was a small catch. Manini was trying to look for USD5,000 (about Sh650,000) to put in as mortgage deposit for an office they wanted to acquire and use as their headquarters. Amenya decided to chip in.
Three days later, Amenya sent the money to Manini. “I spoke with him and he was excited to the point of saying that it was God’s doing that I had come into the project,” said Amenya. After sending the money, Manini sent Amenya an image showing that he had written a cheque to the owner of the house.
A few days later, Manini contacted Amenya again and claimed that they needed Sh5,000 more. Amenya told him that he didn’t have the extra cash at the moment. In between, Manini revealed to him that he actually needed Sh25,000 to put down as the deposit, and not the initial Sh5,000 that Amenya had sent.
Two or three weeks later, Amenya was paid USD5,000 (about Sh650,000) for some work that he had done. This payment came in coincided with Manini’s constant pleas to Amenya for additional cash.
“He kept insisting saying ‘Oh, you need to help us; God brought you…'” said Nelson Amenya. “He had stated that he wanted me to help him raise USD15,000 and he would raise the balance of USD10,000. When I got paid, I decided to send him the money but requested that he must refund me within a month or two because I needed the money.”
He sent the money to Manini’s personal account, bringing the total he had sent to USD10,000. After receiving the money, Manini kept on insisting that Amenya should help them raise the remainder. He refused. Manini never raised the rest of the money and the house sellers only received USD10,000 which was Amenya’s money.
“After a month or two, I asked for my money back after realizing they had no way of raising the balance of USD15,000,” said Amenya. However, Manini claimed that the contract he had entered into with the seller stated that he could not get the money until 60 days are over in July 2025. After this period, the seller would refund the deposit paid and put the house back in the market.
After the 60 days elapsed in July 2025, Amenya asked for his money back. However, Manini alleged that the seller had agreed to extend the duration to allow him get the balance.
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Amenya would have fallen for this had it not been for his friend Sammy who informed him that he had noticed that the seller had place the house back in the market.
“Manini continued to insist that the deposit of USD10,000 was holding the house and that the seller had not place the house in the market yet. But the money was already gone after he failed to raise the balance of USD15,000,” said Amenya. It was not until mid September that Manini admitted to Amenya that the money was actually lost.
“I had insisted that I wanted to see the terms of the contract; how could it be that this contract could not be terminated and we get our money back. But he never ever gave us the contract,” said Amenya.
The JKIA whistleblower claimed that his efforts to get his money back from Manini had hit the rock. He claimed that David Manini is a fraud who has been ‘lying to MassHousing and other potential partners that he has build thousands of houses in Kenya which is false’.
