Faces behind Jevanjee housing project and Sh1.9billion loan attached to public land title deed

Jabavu Village (K) Limited is a subsidiary real estate wing of Hass Petroleum Group with vast interest in Kenya and the Horn of Africa region and spreading to Dubai in the United Arabs Emirates (UAE).

Despite having diversified their interests in property development and oil sectors, the ownership including directorship of Jabavu Village and Hass Petroleum Group is the same and hold positions in the two sister companies interchangeably.

Our investigations have revealed that Jabavu Village (K) Limited is owned by Abdinasir Ali Hassan, Abdulkadir Ahmed Hussein and Abdirashid Mohamad Jabane.

Hassan is the chairman of the board of Jabavu Village and chairman of the Hass Petroleum Group while Hussein is the Managing Director of Jabavu Village and a director of Hass Petroleum Group.

Documents in our possession show that indeed, the National Bank of Kenya approved issuance of Sh1.9billion loan to Jabavu Village (K) Limited (JVL) on December 23, 2022 for the construction of affordable housing units at Jevanjee Estate, Ngara in Nairobi.

In our previous broadcast, we revealed how Jabavu Village Limited used title deed of a public land measuring 8.9 acres to obtain a Sh1.9billion loan facility at a time the firm was fighting bankruptcy suit over Sh611million debt owed to Credit Bank Limited.

Jabavu Village (K) Limited has since claimed the land in questions is no longer belongs to the public.

According to a letter from National Bank dated January 18, 2023 in our possession, the public land in question, L.R No.209/5458 registered as Nairobi Bachelors Jevanjee Estate Limited was charged by Jabavu Village for Sh1.9billion.

The process of obtaining the Sh1.9billion at National Bank was initiated in December 2022 at a time the insolvency suit by Credit Bank against Jabavu Village was active but National Bank completed processing the loan facility in May 2023.

The Sh1.9billion used as seed capital for the commercial development using public land as security by a private developer has raised questions of Jabavu’s cost of investment in the housing project whose units will be sold out to members of the public a cost of Sh7.7billion.

When contacted by The Informer Media Group for comment, Jabavu Village (K) Limited officials did not respond to our mails.

In one of the correspondences, National Bank Managing Director, George Odhiambo said that, in the security provided by Jabavu Village Limited provided a title deed for the Jevanjee Estate property.

According to the MD, the developer approached the in 2022, offering the title deed for the Jevanjee Estate, covering approximately 8.9 acres, as security for the loan.

So far, out of the approved Sh1.9billion, the bank has disbursed Sh505million to Jabavu Village Limited, with the most recent disbursement done on March 15, 2024.

National Bank also presented documentation showing that the property transfer to Nairobi Bachelors Jevanjee Estate Limited, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), was registered in July 2019.

The SPV’s shareholding structure, initially 99 per cent in favour of the county government, had reportedly been altered to 80 per cent for JVL and 20 per cent for the county, a change that has stirred controversy among Nairobi County Assembly members.

Assembly Planning Committee members alleged that certain county officials from both the previous and current administrations facilitated the shift, raising concerns about public assets being transferred into private hands.

The committee Chairperson and Kitusuru MCA Alvin Olando noted that Nairobi residents would not stand for the privatization of public property, stressing that the matter would be thoroughly investigated.

“The county will not allow public property to be illegally transferred for the benefit of a few individuals.” Olando stated.

The inquiry, which is expected to continue this week, seeks to clarify the bank’s role and the legality of the property transfer.

National Bank executives have committed to cooperating, although representatives from Jabavu Village Limited have yet to appear before the committee.

To fight the insolvency suit against Credit Bank, Jabavu which was reeling in a financial crisis listed expected Sh7.7billion proceeds from the Jeevanjee housing project projected safety net bounce back to financial stability.

To execute the housing project, Jabavu has on Ms. Zhongjiao Third Highway Engineering EA Company and have since signed a contract to effect the development.

Through a letter dated April 21, 2022 Credit Bank was demanding arrears of Sh800million (USD 6,803,485.51.) from Jabavu arising from a loan facility the bank advanced to Jabavu amounting to Sh632million (USD 5,273,332.22).

Credit Bank had sought to issue a statutory demand against Jabavu over Sh611million (USD 4,700,000) debt.

However, High Court Judge Lady Justice Freda Mugambi upheld application by Jabavu director Abdulkadir Ahmed Hussein to set aside the statutory demand issued by Credit Bank.

In the suit, Jabavu Village (K) Limited were the applicants while Credit Bank were the respondents.

“In conclusion therefore, I allow the notice of motion dated December 21, 2022 and set aside the statutory demand dated December 1, 2022. The respondents shall bear the costs of these proceedings.” Justice Mugambi ruled.

The fierce battle to fight off bankruptcy suit by financially distressed Jabavu played out concurrently with processing of a parallel loan using the Jevanjee public land title deed at National Bank of Kenya (NBK) on January 18, 2023.

Further, the Nairobi City County Assembly Sectorial Committee on Planning and Housing Committee is investigating possible fraud on how the initial documents between the Jevanjee affordable housing project and the Nairobi County were amended.

This is after the developer Jabavu Village Limited (JVL), claimed that the land on which the project is being implemented is no longer public land.

According to Nairobi South MCA and deputy Minority leader Waithera Chege, the presence of an addendum means there was an actual document before the amendments were done.

The MCA said there could be possible fraud that was conducted to have the documents changed and have the developer have 80 per cent instead of 1 per cent as in the original document.

She claimed that the agreement between Jabavu Village Limited and Nairobi City County was changed by a few individuals.

“There is a likelihood that there was fraud in terms of the amendment of the actual document. Whenever there is an addendum it means that there was an actual document that was there before an amendment was done. We are looking at fraud in the sense that the initial document as SPV shows that Nairobi ought to have taken 99 per cent while the developer was to take the remaining 1 per cent. At what point did the addendum before the government get signed that the developer has 80 per cent and the county 20 per cent? We are investigating fraud.” Waithera stated.