Jubilee Party Secretary-General Raphael Tuju has for some time been caught in the headwinds after information surfaced that a major international bank was going after him over a Ksh1.5 billion loan deal.
A report by the Business Daily on Friday, January 3, indicated that the loans were targeted for the construction of Ksh100 million two-storey, flat-roofed bungalows sitting on a 20-acre forested land dubbed Entim Sidai, and the purchase of a 94-year-old bungalow built by a Scottish missionary Albert Patterson that is currently a hotel.
Tuju, in his documents to the court, indicated that the bank coming after him was frustrating efforts by a Dubai-based investor identified as Zlivia Corporation that was seeking the opportunity to invest in the property to make it profitable.
Zlivia Corporation is stated to be a gold trading company based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
It caught the country's attention in May 2019, when it emerged in the center of a Ksh400 million fake gold scam that roped in the elite rulers of the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The scandal also caught senior names in the Kenyan political scene, including ODM leader Raila Odinga, President Uhuru Kenyatta, Ford Kenya's Moses Wetangula and Interior CS Fred Matiang'i.
The company is directed by flashy Kenyan businessman and politician Zaheer Jhanda alongside Mohamed Ali Zandi Goharizzi, who is identified as the co-director.
A Citizen TV report in May 2019 indicated that Zaheer was incorporated into Zlivia Company as a Director in December of 2018 and that he acquired a 12% stake in the company for the purposes of the gold deal that went sour.
Zandi was reported by the Daily Nation on May 22, 2019, to be the voice behind the allegations that Dubai ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, had been piling pressure on the Kenyan government to release gold detained at the airport.
Tuju, in December 2019, received a seven-day order, which lapsed on Friday, January 3, stopping the multinational lender from taking over his property.
Tuju, however, told Kenyans.co.ke that there no auctioneers had visited the matter even as the seven-day reprieve comes to an end.
"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," he stated.
