Detectives from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Headquarters along Kiambu Road were for the better part of Wednesday left completely overwhelmed as a drove of victims from the infamous Urithi Housing Scam made their way to Mazingira House in a courageous quest for justice following the sad realization that billions of their hard-earned cash had sunk under a non-existent housing investment project.
Urithi Housing, for those not aware, is a housing co-operative that markets itself as “the best bet for those who cannot afford mortgages” and which has in the past eight years defrauded thousands of unsuspecting Kenyans.
With their hopes of being homeowners crushed, the angry investors lined up at the DCI Headquarters baying for disgraced Urithi Housing Chairman Samuel Maina’s blood.
Maina is one of the carefree administrators of the well-orchestrated scheme. Just like their boss, his cronies are known to drive posh cars, ride roughshod over investors and have no time for media inquiries.
Some of those who camped at Kiambu Road expressed anger and frustration over how the fraudulent corporation’s bosses preferred to use police to silence a group of peaceful protesters who joined together and took to the streets rather than boldly face them and offer solutions.
The officer in charge on Wednesday advised the mammoth of agitated investors — a significant number of whom tirelessly work abroad towards the now-rare privilege of owning a home — to return back tomorrow, Thursday 8, July in order to allow him time to gather a team large enough to listen to each of their witness statements and build a case off them later on.
The more than 32,000 members of the co-operative are counting heavy losses as some of them had taken bank loans to finance the non-existent purchases and have now been left with nothing to show for the money more than eight years since giving Urithi Housing their money.
Samuel Maina, whom the investors solely lay the blame on – as the buck stops with him – has in recent months ran out of lies to tell.
In the most recent status update, dated June 2, Samuel Maina said the co-operative had profiled every project to give clear timelines and deliverables.
He claimed that over 30 land projects were in “good progress” (not expounded any further) and that their title deeds would be delivered in a few months, again failing to specify on the duration the clients were set to wait.
He also falsely claimed that Urithi Housing had set up “a robust communication desk” to reach out to each of the customers “based on their obligations or payment status”.
In the last two years, Samuel Maina has invested millions of shillings in multiple botched PR overdrives on local media as a way to pacify the anger its clients have against the entity, but even this desperate method has in the last weeks proven futile as more and more investors continue to clearly see Urithi Housing for the fraud that it is.
In an article written recently by a local media house, the embattled Sacco Chairman Samuel Maina wrongly blamed the housing sector woes on the COVID-19 pandemic and asked the government to create a Sh50 billion fund to cushion actors in the industry.
Aside from the ridiculous remarks on the poorly-rated paper, Samuel Maina has also of late been splashing wads of cash at the Uhuru Kenyatta-owned Mediamax Limited subsidiary K24 TV, where he sponsors his choreographed “title deed awarding ceremonies” in a bid of drawing attention away from the member’s efforts to reach out to the public over the litany of scandals surrounding Urithi Housing Sacco.
On Urithi Housing
What is going on with Urithi Housing. A scam? Scandal? Are you affected? Tell us about it.
Meanwhile, here is Samuel Maina of @UrithiHCSL. Today, there was a demonstration by customers who invested in Urithi Housing. Why were they stopped from demonstrating? pic.twitter.com/wqFyYAKFXp
— Dr. John Njenga Karugia PhD. (@johnnjenga) July 1, 2020
From these declarations, it’s quite evident that as this site previously reported, Urithi Housing Sacco Chairman Samuel Maina Is A Crook.
As repeated in past news articles on this independent blog, Maina and other directors are stinking rich and have been laundering their loot into the real estate sector registering tons of proxies hence demand by members that some of the laundered money be tracked and attached.
A few weeks ago, a section of the thousands of victims launched a Telegram group where they have been airing their grievances.
Before they “invaded” the DCI Headquarters today, this blog had reported that the members were already drafting a memorandum on their grievances and were planning to drop them at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) the Ministry of Co-operatives, etc.
Speaking off record outside the DCI Headquarters, the duped investors painfully narrated how they were drawn to the projects thanks to enticingly misleading adverts, well-planned trips to view the land, and mega “groundbreaking ceremonies”.
In the well planned peaceful robbery, Samuel Maina also shared out to members multiple artistic impressions of what the future homes would look like.
For the stubborn ones who still wouldn’t be convinced, Maina would organize tours to destinations like Malindi, accommodate them in posh hotels and then driven them out – often over 20 kilometres into unknown lands – and claim to be the plots Urithi was selling
Once finally sold to the idea and into the trap, Samuel Maina and his lieutenants would then ask them for “fencing and title processing money”.
Another investor openly confessed that after being paid, some of the sales which had ushered them through the tour disappeared and blocked all following calls and messages they sent.
Why, we at cnyakundi.com wonder, have detectives still not apprehended Samuel Maina despite the protests from hundreds of scammed members of Urithi Housing Sacco?
Have the men and women bestowed the duty to impartially wear white hat succumbed to the temptation of fat brown envelopes that Samuel Maina is known to generously give out whenever he stumbles upon an obstacle whilst running his dirty deals?
With the fresh mountain of evidence (in form of witness statements which detectives are expected to collect this week) under the hands of the DCI, all eyes now focus on the boss George Kinoti whom the investors hope will make a move and come to their rescue.
