The Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) is in dire straits after the Chamber President Richard Ngatia and the Acting Chairman of the Nairobi Chapter Mr Geoffrey Kimani are accused of embezzling funds.
In order to carry out the heist, Mr Kimani is accused of frustrating seasoned businessman Jimnah Mbaruh who was the chairman of the Nairobi Chapter. Mr Mbaruh resigned out of frustration leaving the crooked Kimani in charge in an acting capacity.
The plan to oust Mbaruh was just the first part of the plot.
Mr Kimani with the blessings of Chamber President Ngatia moved in with illegally appointed directors to push more people who were not aligned with his looting agenda out.
In total disregard of the KNCCI Constitution Kimani appointed 7 new directors with the blessing of Richard Ngatia.
“KNCCI constitution states that Co-option of Directors can only be done by the Board at County Level. 7 new directors were Co-opted without the proper procedure being followed or vetting as per Constitution of KNCCI. In fact, Three of the newly co-opted Directors are not even fully paid up Members of the NAIROBI KNCCI”, said a source who spoke exclusively to us.
Efforts to correct this anomaly has been hard for the law-abiding leaders in the chamber as every legal and amicable way has been shot down.
Illegalities
As per the Chamber Constitution, you cannot hold office if you have not paid a subscription for two years. The directors do not fit this criterion.
The KNCCI Constitution is also clear that Co-opted Directors should be appointed based on Professionalism, Gender and people with Disabilities. Priority has not been given to current Nairobi County KNCCI Members. Which shows how flawed the process is.
The source further says that a complaint to KNCCI’s National Dispute Resolution Committee was made because trying to solve it within the county where Mr Kimani is an interested party was not the best route; however, even after following the laid down procedures in seeking an amicable solution to the problem within KNCCI Nairobi as per the Memorandum of Association, the Director, a Mr Theuri was forced to drop the complaint without any solution.
A Board Meeting of the newly Co-opted 7 Directors was called by the Acting Chairman Mr Kimani and the agenda was to discuss the 5 elected Directors and vote them out. They refused to go for that Board Meeting as the 7 Directors were co-opted illegally, have no voting rights. They asked their Lawyer to write to Mr Kimani as the Acting Chairman to the effect that the Nairobi KNCCI Board meeting was null and void as the new Directors had no powers to make decisions on behalf of KNCCI Nairobi Members.
In a Whatsapp message seen by us, a disgruntled member writes, “I wish to inform NAIROBI KNCCI Members that Mr. Kimani as the Acting Chairman, is using Director, Jesse Muraya who is the Administrator of the Whatsapp KNCCI Nairobi County Group, and other Co-opted Directors doctoring Board Meeting Minutes taken earlier to prove that the 7 Co-opted Directors were legally Co-opted and the 5 Directors consented”.
In the illegal plans, the Whatsapp warning singles out a Mr Thinguri Warwathe, who is described as a Well known KNCCI Spoiler, who is being used by Mr Kimani to execute these illegal plans.
Mr Thinguri has been a longtime hitman and spoiler as evidenced by the success of his illegal plans at the KNCCI Kiambu Chapter.
The tussle is about the control of resources.
The wrangles led to Mastercard asking for a refund of its Sh400 million.
“Mastercard has since written a protest letter to them to refund the money they ate. 400m was allocated to the Entire chamber of the whole country. It was being disbursed at our head office under the watch of Ngatia. The likes of Kimani pocketed part of the money even before it was disbursed to poor struggling business Members. Kimani is fighting other vocal board members to leave for him so that he can swindle all the money we have brought in the account -members money”, wrote a source
Mr Kimani is accused of trying to change bank signatories but failed. The relentless crook has tried to do that thrice but the bank refused.
“They have tried 3 times but the bank refused. Two of the Directors they want to remove are signatories they were told to bring them to sign out. Ngatia wrote a letter directing the bank to allow them to be signatories but all in vain”, we learnt.
The Nairobi County Chamber has been awarded Sh7 million by Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) as a grant. This new money is said to be eyed by Ngatia and his clique of crooks.
They want to loot the chamber to death, but first, they want the vocal and legally co-opted directors out.
