A member of PCEA Karen salvages church property after a land row with
Nairobi County. The church’s Ruiru Parish is locked in a dispute with a
bank over land. PHOTO | FILE
An investment firm associated with the Presbyterian Church of
East Africa (PCEA) is fighting the planned auctioning of 202 acres of
land in Ruiru worth Sh1.4 billion.
The prime property, identified as Ebenezer Ridges, is up for sale when the auctioneer’s hammer falls on December 10.
The
church’s Ruiru parish said it is planning court action against a bank
and an auctioneering firm for issuing a notice on the sale of the prime
land.
The sale is said to have been prompted by
failure to service a multimillion-shilling loan taken by the PCEA Ruiru
Parish Development Foundation from a local lender that is majority owned
by the government.
“All interested bidders will be
required to first make a refundable deposit of Sh2 million to be allowed
to bid and obtain a bidding number,” said a notice from Spotlight
Intercepts Auctioneers appearing in newspapers on Tuesday, prompting a
protest from the organisation.
LUCRATIVE BUSINESS
“We
have a court order stopping the auction. We will sue to stop it and sue
for contempt,” said an executive at the firm who declined to give his
name, adding that the investment is embroiled in a row with a bank.
The
PCEA investment firm has been selling a quarter acre of land for Sh1.8
million while a half acre has been going for Sh3.5 million. Full acre
plots have been selling for Sh6.9 million, according to a sale notice
that appeared in the Daily Nation on October 11, 2012.
The
investment firm is said to have borrowed money from a local bank to
acquire more than 1,000 acres of coffee farms and it was to subdivide
the land and sell it to investors, reflecting the increased interest by
the church to seek a piece of Kenya’s property boom.
Property
market analysts say the rising rent and home prices in Nairobi and
other urban centres will continue to hold, further underlining real
estate as an asset class of premium returns relative to equities, bonds
and bank deposits.
This is what is attracting
faith-based institutions like the Catholic Church, Jesus Is Alive
Ministries (JIAM), Christ Is the Answer Ministries (CITAM) and PCEA into
the property market.
With many land deals in Kenya turning controversial, PCEA has not been able to stay above the fray.
The
Ruiru PCEA Investment Company was taken to court over fraudulent claims
made against a director in connection with land sale.
The
church was also entangled in a court case in which a land estate agent
has sued former Kiambaa MP Stanley Githunguri for Sh79 million in agency
commission from the sale of a vast coffee estate to PCEA Kambui
Presbytery for Sh1.2 billion.
Propensity Properties
Consultants say it was approached by the politician as the chairman of
Tassia Coffee Estate to secure a buyer for two parcels of land — Taurus and Tassia.
The
agent says he struck a deal with PCEA Kambui Church, which agreed to
buy the 790 acres for Sh1.3 million per acre, upon which he was to
receive Sh100,000 as agency commission per acre. The tycoon denied
knowledge of the agency deal
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