Laico Regency which was formerly and popularly known as the Grand Regency is flat broke. The hotel has no signs of ever making a come back. With zero cash flow, Laico Regency has now started terminating contracts of its employees. These employees have been on unpaid leave since March 2020.
Just before Kenya reported her first case of coronavirus in March 2020, Laico sent all its employees on 30 days of unpaid leave. The hotel staff were on unpaid leave after efforts to have some Sh. 50 million released to cater for their salaries and clear statutory deductions hit a dead end. This leave was further extended up to June 2020. In September 2020, Laico’s caretaker manager Jamal Ahmed sent a memo to all employees stating that Laico Regency was being shut down indefinitely.
In April 2020, it had emerged that the hotel was battling for the release of Sh. 200 million bailout which was stuck in a commercial bank, six months since it was wired from Rwanda. This money was wired by the Libyan embassy in Kigali to the North African country’s mission to Kenya to bail out the hotel on Uhuru Highway after it failed to pay staff, suppliers and contractors.
Eric Omondi shows off his new ‘Sh. 141 million mansion’ in Karen
The Sh. 200 million was credited at the Libyan embassy in Kenya account held at Kenya Commercial Bank University way branch between September and October last year. The Libyan embassy in Kenya was then expected to wire the money to Laico hotel with half of the mount already earmarked to clear tax arrears and penalties owed to the Kenya Revenue Authority.
Laico was originally owned by businessman Kamlesh Patni who was the mastermind of the Goldenberg scandal. It was repossessed by the government to recover proceeds of corruption from Patni. After the repossession, the Central Bank of Kenya sold it to the Libyan government in 2008.