William Rutos Wealth: Deputy President William Ruto took a loan of Sh. 1.3 billion using the title deed of his Weston Hotel.
According to a recent Standard newspaper report, DP. Ruto borrowed the money from two local banks. “He first borrowed Sh. 100 million from Equity Bank in 2011, before turning to Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB), where he borrowed a total of Sh. 1.25 billion in 2014 and 2015 using the same title,” the Standard reports. “He used some of the money received from KCB to repay the outstanding loan at Equity.”
The media house further reports that according to a valuation report by that was commissioned by Equity Bank and done by Zenith (Management) Valuers Ltd, Weston was valued at Sh. 300 million in 2010. “It is not clear whether other assets were used to guarantee the Sh. 1.25 billion loan.”
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On December 7, 2011, says the Standard, DP Ruto charged the property for Sh. 100 million, which was discharged on October 8, 2014 when KCB bought out the Equity Bank loan. He then charged the property to KCB and received Sh. 350 million and $1.5 million (about Sh. 150 million) facilities on June 30, 2014.
“On July 8, 2015, Weston took a further charge of Sh. 700 million on the title. This took the total loan charge at KCB to Sh. 1.25 billion. All the charges were prepared by Hamilton, Harris and Mathews (HH&M) law firm,” the paper reports.
The hotel is under contest, with the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) arguing that the 1.77-acre parcel was irregularly acquired. But DP Ruto has come out to fight claims that the hotel is illegally in existence.
“In documents presented to NLC, Ruto, through lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, defended the process of acquiring the title to the land. Mr Abdullahi told the commission that the property was charged to banks and no question was raised over the legality of the documents,” the Standard further says in its report.