For the better part of Friday, 20th May 2022, this blog’s Chief Editor Cyprian Nyakundi was bombarded with hundreds of spam comments on his official Facebook page.
After strict scrutiny, it was quickly established that the relentless and annoying spambots had one thing in common; they were all accounts run by a section of workers contracted by controversial Thika-based real estate firm Lesedi Developers Limited.
Their mission?
To disparage blogger Cyprian Nyakundi and the entire cnyakundi.com team as merchants of fake news and misinformation.
The droves of employees, reportedly acting under orders from Lesedi CEO Ms Esther Wagura, descended upon a specific article published four days ago with all sorts of baseless assertions in the name of ‘defending’ the company’s tarnished ‘reputation’.
The story in question was one published by this author four days ago, highlighting the plight of frustrated staff who desperately reached out to us in search of redress for what they termed as outright dishonesty and unfair treatment by Lesedi’s rogue management.
The firm that boasts of clients in Nairobi, Kiambu, Nakuru and Machakos had reportedly not been submitting statutory deductions to the Kenyan government as required by the law.
The source who wrote to us exclusively revealed that over the past few months, sick staff at the company were forced to dig deep into their pockets for medical treatment because their NHIF cards are deemed inapplicable due to the defaulted payment by Lesedi.
At the time, when the angry workers confronted the management and demanded their P9 forms to submit returns on the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) portal, the Human Resource (HR) Manager falsely claimed there was a recurring system issue that needed to be solved first.
But according to Lesedi’s team of online warriors, these were ‘unfounded claims’ meant to mislead the public.
For hours on end, they kept glorifying their employer as the best to ever exist and strongly rubbished the reports.
However, as the old saying goes, no matter how hard anyone tries to hide it, the truth always comes out.
In this case, all the lies flooded on our page by the hired mercenaries have proven to be a temporary delay to the inevitable.
Nuggets of the real and ugly reality at Lesedi Developers are springing out like mushrooms in a garden.
This time around, trusted insiders within the firm have confirmed to us that the matter we highlighted, albeit late, painted a crystal clear picture of the current sad state of affairs at the realtor.
We have also been reliably informed that although some of the burning issues – like the delayed remittance of statutory deductions – have temporarily been sorted out, the rogue management continues to exhibit extreme ineptness in running the company.
Lesedi Developers, we have come to understand regrettably, is a largely scandalous firm that shields behind a well-strategized ‘public image’ that portrays them as astute professionals, when in the real sense, a massive cabal of greedy swindlers lies underneath.
“Good evening Nyakundi,
Thank you for exposing Lesedi Developers Management.
The expose was first done by blogger Robert Alai and that was the day that NHIF was paid.
Later in the day the CEO Ms Esther Wagura called us for a meeting and told us (CROS) that we are not going to get any commission since the money was used to pay NHIF deductions and we were told to keep quiet na hatukuweza.
When any blogger posts something about the company, tunaambiwa we comment and share good things about Lesedi and we share evidence.
All the people who left comments on your page are my fellow colleagues.
Now, the issue is that most of Lesedi’s projects are scandalous.
I will give examples.
We had one called Muthaara Green Acres.
These were 360 units going for 350,000.
The project was fully sold out but the director had not paid the landowner.
Last week the beacons were removed and the landowner demolished the clients’ houses that were built.
Now our office is full of chaos since the clients want a refund and there is no money.
The same case applies to Muthaara Phase 4, another sold-out project but the landowner removed all the beacons na akasema watu wasijenge ama atabomoa.
The is still Olimpia Court 1 a project in Landless.
It was sold out in December, the clients are always in the office asking for a refund, walikatazwa kujenga na mwenyewe juu hajalipwa.
The current Malindi Chakama Project that is being marketed za kuwa na mashida.
Kuna client walinunua the previous phases na bado hawajawahi pelekwa kwa shamba.
Lesedi Developers have a lot of court cases being taken to court by clients.
I have attached some of them below.
Wako na wakili wawili ambao hushinda kortini.
Lesedi offices are full of clients asking for refunds and wanafukuzwa kila siku.
We have many stalled projects at Lesedi with clients always asking for title deeds.
Kindly advise Kenyans not to buy Land if the mother title is not in the name of Lesedi since the same issue itatokea,” the source writes.