Government Auctions Cyrus Jirongo's Property

The Government on Wednesday sold the property of former Presidential candidate Cyrus Jirongo, who had been declared bankrupt in 2017.

Through the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK), the former Lugari MP’s 103-acre farm was sold for Sh53 Million in a bid to recover part of loans, amounting to Sh495 Million owed to Dubai Bank which has now collapsed.

The land, which was registered to Kuza and Allied Ltd (a company fully owned by Jirongo) was sold to Ninja Transporters.

The Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation, the company hired to collect Dubai Bank assets, contracted Valley Auctioneers to sell Jirongo's property.

[caption caption="Cyrus Jirongo (Facebook)"][/caption]

The farm which is located in Uasin Gishu county had earlier been auctioned at Sh70 Million but failed to get a buyer.

This was attributed to the electioneering period which had affected the property market.

During the first attempt, the property was reserved at a price of Sh70 Million which valued an acre on the farm at about Sh680,000.

Last year, Jirongo unsuccessfully challenged the CBK's decision to place his company under receivership over the accumulated debt.

Kuza Farm was among six companies the Central Bank placed under statutory management after they were found to have defaulted on loans owed to Dubai Bank which went into receivership on August 14, 2015.

[caption caption="Cyrus Jirongo (Twitter)"][/caption]

Dubai Bank was voluntarily closed after an external auditor, Horwath Erustus and Company, submitted a report to Parliament in 2016 indicating that the lender had non-performing loans worth Sh2.5 Billion.