A Ksh1.2 billion loan which Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) gave Deputy President William Ruto between 2014 and 2015 has returned to haunt KCB CEO Joshua Oigara, with the government insisting he takes personal responsibility.
In what continues the fall of DP Ruto, the state wants the colossal amount repaid by Ruto who had used his influence in government to delay the repayment. This new demand comes even as the isolated and cash-strapped Deputy President continue to put a brave face in his opposition to President Uhuru’s BBI agenda.
All sides understand the stakes. For government, they argue the Deputy President will not repay the loan. For DP Ruto, this is one more excuse the government is using to cow him to toe the line. For Oigara, the chickens are coming home to roost.
The loan, issued in two caches, first came to the fore when the government filed a case challenging ownership of the land on which DP Ruto’s Weston Hotel is built on. In the suit, the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority wanted the land reverted to it, claiming it changed hands irregularly.
KCB opposed the repossession suit by KCAA, claiming it had advanced Weston Hotel a loan of Ksh1.2 billion and charged the hotel property. The bank was livid it would lose the money should the hotel lose the land case to KCAA. Impeccable sources privy to the goings told this writer that KCAA, a government agency, intends to demolish the hotel.
This is not the first time the government takes Oigara to task over his dealings with Ruto. Last year, Central Bank of Kenya demanded an explanation from KCB when it flagged a suspicious transaction of Ksh204 million between former KCB Director Adil Khawaja and a Mr. Tanui, believed to have been a front for the Deputy President.
The money, which was withdrawn in cash thus muddling the paper trail, forced Oigara to sign off the CBK query, but the state believed Mr. Oigara acted to conceal potential money-laundering.
And even though the state could not do anything further, thus sulked and walked away, it had an idea of the eventual beneficiary of Oigara’s penmanship. Now the state is exacting a revenge.
A year after the Jubilee regime came to power, DP Ruto went into an expansion spree of his properties, particularly Weston Hotel, which had become one of the busiest hotels in Kenya as a result of numerous government agencies and parastatals booking the facility for meetings, conferences and seminars. Government guests attending important national days or international events were also directed at the hotel, whose occupancy was always full. Will Oigara survive?
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