As economy continues to be tough, and banks continue to act with caution, Banda homes which disguises as an off plan option is keen on scamming the unsuspecting investors.
Banda homes as an offplan developer sell off houses at design stage, receive deposit and builds them as monthly instalment are paid during construction. In other words, offplan house purchase means that you are loaning someone money to build and sell the home back to you at a profit in their favor.
It started out as Dinara developers around 2011, then Lettas developers around 2013, then Banda homes in 2018, and now Nyumbani Concepts ltd as at July 2019. The directors mastered the art of rebranding each time after soiling their reputation of not delivering on their projects through mismanagement of funds.
You know something is wrong when this statement is what welcomes you to their website; “Acacia Front Estate consists of 143 units of three-bedroom all en-suite Bungalows. This is a hilly estate quite similar to the Beverly Hills in the US, the all en-suite three-bedroom bungalows are 138 square meters with perfect ambiance, spacious rooms and quality finishes,”. And as if that’s not enough, you find several videos with their brand logo “Banda TV” showing their ‘successes’. I mean who does that.
Banda Homes is known for not paying promptly for land they acquire. They pay substantial amount of money at the onset but want to put up buildings before they clear the balance.
Over 90% of projects that started way back in 2011 are yet to be completed but surprisingly tens of hundreds of their clients are still transacting with them as they are unaware of these fraudulent deals.
At the center of this circus is Andrew Kamau Muhiu and Paul Nderitu, the masterminds of all this. The two directors are averagely young fellows living large with a dozen homes, high end vehicles and several women in line. Andrew is said to be the brother to the late lawyer Paul Magu Muhiu, who allegedly committed cult killings of his wife and 3 children, before committing suicide back in 2015. He hides behind curtains and has put up his former employees as directors so that the customers that check on Banda homes don’t stumble on his name.
Andrew Kamau Muhiu has several court cases from his previous unfinished projects ranging from mismanagement in Dinara, to Lettas developers, Banda homes and now Nyumbani concepts ltd. Some projects are in Thindigua and a handful in Thika. His solution was to raise funds externally to plug the deficit as the cases were not going away and have been on for years.
In January 2018 he launched two housing estates in Kimunyu, Kenyatta Road. Through vigorous marketing, they sold out about 100units securing a deposit of sh150 million. Houses here cost sh4 million out of which a deposit of sh1.5 million is paid instantly and the balance is cleared in 10months when the houses are expected to be complete. Part of this money went to clear deficits of his previous failed projects.
He further launched more estates between January and April 2018 with most being along Kenyatta Road, off Thika super highway and some in Kikuyu near Sigona totalling about 900 units and collecting deposits of about Sh1.5 Billion.
This amount was used to partly pay for the land of the estates and about Sh200 million diverted to finish up the old projects.
Going forward, he had a deficit of about Sh300 million diverted to old projects. Also a lion share of these deposits was used to purchase the pieces of land.
Andrew Kamau Muhiu convinced one of the heirs of the Kenyatta family by the name Kamau Ngengi to sell him a 20 acre piece for sh7 million per acre. He had 145 housing units designed on this piece of land and sold them out in a month getting about Sh218 million in deposits. He used this to pay part of the land cost and to cover back the Sh300 million diverted from Banda homes.
It took the intervention of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s kin Kathleen Kihanya to question the amount of money their prime land on which Banda Homes developers were putting a Sh1 billion estate for sale was bought.
When Former First lady Mama Ngina Kenyatta heard about the price their family land was sold at, she rejected the sale and returned the deposit to Banda homes at the rate of sh15 million per acre. The story was then published in the media and most buyers went for their refunds but were told to wait, as there was no money anyway. This is when the rain started beating them. Banda homes went on to launch two more estates with about 300units, seeking to solve their issues with customer deposits.
In all these estates customers were expected to continue with monthly instalments of about 300,000 each, to support ongoing construction. But on noticing very slow progress despite the consistent payments, most started holding on further payments until they see satisfactory progress on their housing units.
Those who had bought or paid deposit of sh1.5 million and monthly instalments of sh300, 000 for the estates were trapped as there was a clause in the contract that says you forfeit 40% of your initial deposit if you choose to pull out of the contract.
We’ve learnt that out of 1500 investors who had placed deposits of Ksh1.5M early this year, Banda Homes Company had, at the time it changed its name to Nyumbani Concepts ltd, only constructed 60 units which were nearly complete. This means 1440 people have been scammed their hard-earned money.
Banda Homes developers have perfected this art of dishonesty as they continuously use the photos of yet to be completed homes everywhere to lure more unsuspecting buyers.
Banda Homes developers has over 150 sales people who are paid sh100, 000 for every unit they sell. This is paid cash at the Mayfair Suites office to motivate the rest.
Most Kenyans who least do search and due diligence are still buying into this estates not knowing what awaits them. They are roped in by cheap prices and a vigorous marketing machine ‘The Property Show’ of NTV is included in this scam.
Just after duping Kenyans to invest in over 1500 units, mismanaged over Sh3 Billion of Kenyans money and counting not delivered on any of them where some of these estates have only done bush clearing despite having been sold out through Dinara, Lettas, Banda homes, the Andrew Kamau Muhiu-led company has resurfaced in the name of Nyumbani Concepts to fleece Kenyans yet again.
Some commentators say, “Like pyramid schemes the lifeline of Banda homes has been deposits from new buyers, being the reason the company has launched estates totalling to 1500units in just a year, who can beat this record?”
There are a number of investors who invested with them as early as 2016 when these developers were still appearing under the name Lettas developers in Juja, Weiteithie, Umoja 1 estate but three years down the line, the over 28 houses have not been handed over to owners who had cleared their payments.
“Banda and lettas….It’s a scam for real….I ‘ve paid 99 percent of a house at Umoja 1 project since 2017….very disappointed with you lettas pple” one client said.
“How is it that I’ve never read from anywhere, heard from anyone who has actually bought and moved into a Banda Home?” A curious Kenyan asked.
These shenanigans has prompted some clients to start legal proceedings against Lettas Developers. 254News is fully aware and can authoritatively state that there are some clients who were scammed and have started legal proceedings against Banda homes and all its entities.
Like members of Suraya Property, Ekeza sacco, Urithi Sacco, name them, many Kenyans who invested in the Banda homes offplan project are now dying unnatural deaths over the monies they worked hard for but scammed by this pyramid scheme. We urge every buyer to do due diligence before engaging in any kind of investment especially the real estate in Kenya.
Just forget about the offplan deal and either go for completed homes or slowly develop yours this is because many are waiting for their Banda homes years later.
After resurfacing as Nyumbani Concepts, the Banda homes developers is now disguising itself as the best sought for advice when it comes to land investment. Nothing has changed in Banda homes other than the name. The designs for the houses are still the same. Martin Njoroge who was serving as sales manager at Banda Homes ltd is now the CEO of Nyumbani Concepts ltd.
Andrew Kamau Muhiu-led company is not smart enough, he may hide but not forever. Why change the name after scamming people of their hard earned monies? Where are the homes you took monies for?
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