Ekeza Sacco fraud victims want Gakuyo barred from contesting elective seat
Thousands of
victims of the Ekeza Sacco, Gakuyo Investment club and Gakuyo real estate now
want the founder of the three entities Bishop David Gakuyo (pictured above) barred from the 2022
polls over the Ksh1.5 billion scandal. The victims who were never
compensated despite an out of court agreement now want the Ethics and
Anti-Corruption Commission to stop Bishop Gakuyo from vying in the 2022
elections. The controversial Bishop has already declared his bid for the Thika
Town parliamentary seat on a Jubilee Party ticket.
On November 21, 2020, Ekeza
Sacco released a statement noting that over 4,000 customers with shares worth
less than Ksh50,000 had received back their refunds.
The Sacco had started refunding
members in phases. The refund process commenced in January 2020 and the plan
was to pay 1,500 members in the first phase and it involved those who had saved
Ksh5,000 downwards.
The second phase was for
members he owed Ksh20,000 to Ksh50,000. Investors who were demanding up to
Ksh200,000 would be refunded later on.
The controversial
televangelist, who founded Ekeza Sacco was forced to surrender to the police
after accusations of defrauding members money amounting to around Ksh1.5
Billion.
The scandal has made headlines
in the country for some considerable time now with members of the Sacco coming
out to demonstrate against the alleged embezzlement of their money in separate
incidents.
The money was apparently
transferred from the Sacco accounts to the personal account of the bishop for
his personal use.
In 2018, the government revoked
the license of the Sacco following complaints by the members that it was
sharing financial accounts with the Gakuyo Real Estate Company.
One of the victims of this saga
is Mr. James Mwangi, a resident of Nairobi.“After three years of hard work, it
was time for me to start saving as my wife was 2 months pregnant. I wanted to
be as prepared as possible since a child comes with a lot of responsibilities.
I decided to tell my mother, who happens to be very educated on some of the
saccos I could use to save my money. Although she had a lot of saccos in mind,
I decided to settle on Ekeza sacco. I would later discover that was one of the
biggest mistakes I ever made’’. Mr. Mwangi said.
After two weeks of unsuccessful
money withdrawal attempts from the sacco, Mwangi then received news of what had
transpired in the company. “ I could not eat for days thinking of the lost
money and how my daughter would be welcomed by her daddys’ empty hands. I
decided not to tell my wife due to her condition, hoping that things would be
soon resolved. This was just but wishes. Months down the line and no serious
actions have been taken apart from the DCI requesting us to record statements
at the Criminal Investigations headquarters located on the Kiambu road’’.
A total of Ksh1.5 billion had
gone missing from the company, all being transferred into private accounts of
Bishop Gakuyo. It was later discovered that Bishop Gakuyo used a total of Ksh
99 million to purchase a house worth Ksh 200 million in Gigiri, Nyari estate
which initially belonged to the former Senator of Machakos Johnson Muthama. He
then used Ksh 128 million to purchase land for Gakuyo real estate at Mavoko
town and Mitubiri/Wempa in Muranga, whose total cost price was Ksh 328 million.
The victims have now regrouped and they want the EACC to take action and force
the Bishop to compensate all the victims of the scam and also have him
prosecuted and barred from holding any public office.
Display Comments
Leave A Comment