Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju is battling auctioneers who are after his properties over an alleged loan amounting to Ksh1.53 billion, which his family owes to a local bank.
According to a report by Business Daily on Friday, January 3, 2020, the politician filed a court suit against a multi-national bank that he allegedly owes the money that was reportedly meant to develop luxury homes in Karen, Nairobi.
The publication indicated that part of the loan was aimed at constructing Ksh100 million two-storey, flat-roofed housing units on a land that was estimated to cover a 20-acre land known as the Entim Sidai.
The politician reportedly defaulted on the loan after the property market slowed down and property developers found it difficult to sell housing units.
The bank in question had earlier obtained an order ruling that Tuju had defaulted on the loan but he got a reprieve when Justice Maureen Odero blocked the lender from operating the loan on Tuesday, December 24, 2019.
The order stopping the bank from effecting the order was to last for seven days and would expire on Friday, January 3, 2020.
“In complete disregard of the deliberate efforts by the plaintiffs (the Tujus) to return the project on profitable trading, the defendant (EADB) has proceeded to appoint receiver managers over all the assets of the plaintiff to engage in the sale and realization of the plaintiff assets and properties as its primary option,” argued Tuju in his December 24 lawsuit according to the publication.
The bank made its case, arguing that Tuju had defaulted the loan since 2017 pegging, the amount at Ksh932.7 million.
Broken down, the features of the Ksh100 million homes each included a jacuzzi in two master bedrooms that had a sunlight roofing.
The loan was also meant for the purchase of a 94-year-old bungalow that was put up by missionary Albert Patterson.
The bank claimed that they entered into an agreement with Dari Limited over the multi-million restaurant that is reportedly under the firm in April 2015 and paid the firm a sum of Ksh943 million.
The bank further argued that two years on, the firm had failed to pay up to Ksh186 million in accrued interest, accusing Tuju of ignoring notices to pay up.
The CS and his family were accused of breaching an agreement and defaulting the payment. Some of the defendants in the suit included his children, Mano Tuju, Alma Tuju and Yma Tuju.
Tuju told Kenyans.co.ke that there was "no auctioneers on the matter yet. We have a dispute with (the bank) that has been running for the last four years due to differences in interest and securities. We believe it was a malicious intent by some of the bank staff and not the bank per se. We have made our countersuit and we believe the courts would be able to adjudicate the matter."
