Andrew Kamau Muhiu is back. After Banda Homes collapsed with more than Sh10 billion in undelivered units and left thousands of buyers stranded, the same man is now fronting fresh vehicles that are once again selling the dream of modern African living along the Thika Superhighway.
Sahara Projects Ltd has been running polished digital campaigns that show glossy walk-throughs of standalone bungalows, double-ensuite homes and neatly paved driveways in growing satellite towns.
The marketing targets the middle class and diaspora buyers looking for secure suburban assets. Developments such as Evergreen Estate in Kenol are presented as ready opportunities. Regulatory filings, investigative disclosures and DCI records tell a different story.
Sahara Projects is not an independent developer hit by ordinary delays. It sits inside a coordinated off-plan network that has repeatedly used corporate rebirth to keep collecting deposits after earlier brands collapsed under public backlash, litigation and police scrutiny.
The method is simple. Once a company faces heat, its operators allow it to wither. Active assets, machinery and new deposits are then moved into a freshly registered entity.
Formal disclosures place Sahara Projects Ltd in the same web as Banda Homes, the flagship that went under after failing to deliver on billions, together with Dinara Developers, Lettas Developers Ltd and Crayven Estates Ltd. Crayven is owned by Catherine Ng’ang’a, Kamau’s second wife.
The couple have been locked in a dispute with Ruth Muthoni, Kamau’s former wife, who is described as a hardworking and successful businesswoman.
The pattern is not new. Alongside Banda Homes, Kamau ran parallel companies including Dinara Developers Limited, Lettas Developers Limited and Mashariki Developers Limited.
Investigative trails connect these successive identities to the same operators behind the Banda Homes scandal that defrauded prospective buyers of over Ksh10 billion.
Sahara Projects itself is controlled by Andrew Kamau Muhiu through proxies. The company operates with the appearance of legitimacy: a presence at premier addresses such as the Sharp Centre in Muthaiga, high-production architectural renders and prime-time media features.
Properties are priced just below prevailing market rates to create urgency among first-time buyers and retirees. Buyers are pushed to pay large initial deposits, often running into millions of shillings, on the promise that construction will be milestone-dependent and protected by escrow arrangements.
Instead, the money is diverted. It is used either to buy new raw parcels that fuel the next marketing wave or routed into personal real estate holdings. Early investors are left with skeletal structures sitting in overgrown thickets.
The runway is narrowing.
Systemic fraud complaints from buyers have pushed economic crime units and the DCI to accelerate their crackdown on off-plan syndicates that recycle failed brands under new names.
For investors who have already watched Banda Homes sink with their cash, the reappearance of the same figure behind Sahara Projects Ltd and Crayven Estates Ltd is not a fresh start. It is the same playbook in motion.
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