Prophet Owuor in soup for ‘conning’ woman Sh. 1.5 billion properties

Prophet Owuor’s Net Worth: Controversial self-proclaimed prophet David Owuor is embroiled in a bitter stand off over a multi-billion property located in Nairobi’s Westlands area.

The controversial preacher who claims to be a prophet and his church known as the Repentance and Holiness Ministry have been accused of forcefully seizing apartments along Rhapta Road in Westlands and Riverside and using proceeds from these properties to finance his flashy lifestyle. The shocking accusation has been brought forward by the relatives of a woman victim. According to a report that appeared in The Star newspaper, the scheme to defraud the woman started in 2005. It was disguised with miracles and thanksgiving at a time when the victim was not of sound mind.

“At the heart of the dispute is a claim that the prophet and senior bishops in his church coerced the woman, identified as Jayne Muthoni, to appoint Owuor’s follower, Lilly Njage, as a co-director in Shaba Investment Limited, the registered owner of the flats,” says the report in The Star.

The family of the woman further says that the woman had been brainwashed and placed under the influence of unidentified drugs that could have caused memory loss.

“We want my sister’s property taken back to her. They forced her to appoint a co-director so that they can take control of the company. They have stolen from her. There is one transaction which I saw and more than Sh. 700 million was withdrawn from her bank account,” the Star quotes the family saying.

The family of the woman yesterday stormed the building to reclaim ownership. It further alleged that Owuor also moved into their sister’s palatial home along Riverside Drive and turned it into his private office and nerve centre for his church operations.

The Star further reports as follows:

“The home compound contains a swimming pool in which Owuor ‘dipped’ Raila in 2009. It is claimed that the Riverside home was at one point owned by former Internal Security minister Geoge Saitoti.

The brother of the victim revealed that the prophet moved out of the Riverside Drive residence hurriedly a few days ago after the family asked for the return of their sister’s property.

Another property — Dove Court Apartments in Westlands — was also taken over by the church and some rooms turned into bishops’ offices, the family claimed. The other rooms at the Dove Court Apartments were rented out and the money generated was used to finance the prophet’s lavish lifestyle.

But Owuor and the church, through lawyer Kimani Watenga, denied there was a plot to deceive the victim identified as Muthoni to surrender her property to the flamboyant prophet who has courted controversy in the past through his contentious prophesies.

He said that Muthoni “voluntarily” appointment Njage, a close friend and church colleague, to help her run the property after she developed “memory problems”.

Speaking outside her apartment yesterday, Muthoni said she had been defrauded of her property but her relatives whisked her away before she could elaborate.

Alice Macharia, Muthoni’s sister, claimed that a scheme by the church to make Macharia a pauper was choreographed back in 2004 when her sister was ‘forced’ to close down her firm to ‘serve the Lord.’

A year later, she was coerced to appoint Macharia to run the property on grounds that she was unwell, she said. “We don’t think the memory lapse they are talking about is natural. We believe our sister was forced to take some drugs that made her lose her memory. We are questioning why the church should ask her to appoint another, whom she is not related to, to manage her property,” Macharia said.

She claimed that Muthoni was never allowed to leave her room and was kept indoors for long periods, at times more than three days. This, she claimed, caused mental torture to their sister, leading to memory loss. She said Muthoni was blocked from visiting their sick mother at Karen Hospital. Their mother, Charity Njagi, passed on February 17, but Muthoni only knew about the death three days later.

But lawyer Watenga said that Muthoni closed down her law firm and devoted herself to the Lord after Owuor healed her son’s dyslexia. “When Muthoni requested prayers and her son was healed from the complicated problem, she decided to retire from practising as a lawyer and so serve God,” the lawyer said.”