Two Banks are now walking along the corridors of Justice demanding payments from a private firm which conned them millions of shillings.
Agricultural Finance Corporation (AFC) and Development Bank of Kenya (DBK) fell victims to Riva Oil’s pranks after the lenders gave the firm loans using a ‘fake’ piece of land owned by squatters as surety.
According to a petition filed at the High Court, Riva Oil conned AFC and DBK twice using a 66,000 acres piece of land owned by another firm based in Kilifi which hosts more than 40,000 residents.
Riva Oil had used the same title deed that is registered to Giriama Ranching Limited, in Giriama Constituency to borrow millions of money from AFC and DBK but later on, closed its offices.
DBK lent Riva Oil 60 million shillings in 2007 and added another 190 million shillings after five months, bringing the total dues to 250 million shillings.AFC was also pranked by Riva Oil but the lender stopped the pursuance after the Government wrote off the loan it had issued.
DBK continued pursuing the loan from the defaulter and sued the Riva Oil directors who were the guarantors of the loan.
However, after going through the petition filed by DBK, the court concluded that Riva Oil and DBK colluded with the ministry of land officials to conduct malpractice.
The court argued that DBK gave Riva Oil the loans where the firm would deliberately default the payments and thus the land officials would give the lender the piece of land.
The high court thus barred the Directorate of Criminal Investigations from digging deeper into the matter saying the issue did not add up as the same title deed used as surety was in the hands of another person.
“If at the end of the trial and any fraud is confirmed and the petitioner is implicated in the fraud, the court trying the cases will have powers to decline the proposed sale of the property by the petitioner DBK. The court can recommend criminal investigation and prosecution of any person deemed to be culpable,” the high court said.
Former Cabinet Secretary For Labor, Kazungu Kambi, Ezekiel Karisa Kitsao, and David Komen Tuitoek are among the Riva Oil guarantors that DBK demands 300 million shillings payment from.