Parliament yesterday started scrutinising a petition in which at least120 people are demanding payment of more than Rwf700 million from defunct real estate developer, DN International.

The petitioners are demanding payment for investments made on the development of one of the realtor’s housing project, Green Park Villas, which was incomplete when the scandal-hit DN International, forcing the owner Nathan Lloyd to flee the country.

They consist suppliers of different materials and those who had made a down payment on some of the houses in the Rusororo-based project.

To understand the root of the problem, members of the parliamentary Standing Committee on Economy and Trade yesterday met with Innocent Nizeyimana, an insolvency administrator appointed by the Commercial High Court in January 2013, as part of the liquidation process for DN International.

MPs were told that after completing about 10 homes as part of the project, DN International left its clients without delivering the homes to them or paying all the suppliers who supplied building materials.

Lloyd, a Kenyan-American businessman, left the country in 2011.

When the company folded, as a financier of the project, Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) seized the incomplete estate over a Rwf1.5-billion loan it was owed.

But KCB did not take care of paying those who supplied construction materials or the prospective home owners who had made down payment on the houses.

"We want to recover our money that we spent on this project; that’s all we need. Parliament is not a court but we believe MPs can do some advocacy so that government institutions can help us to recover our money,” said Francis Bayingana, the lead petitioner.

Bayingana told The New Times that courts have failed to help the petitioners recover their money as they could not find representatives of the accused firm to be held accountable.

According to Bayingana, KCB, which took over the project, should be in position to shoulder the liabilities.

As part of analysing the issue surrounding the petition over Green Park Villas, the parliamentary committee will consult different stakeholders, including KCB as a financier and now the current owner of the project, petitioners themselves, as well as Rwanda Development Board (RDB), which had licensed DN International.

"Right now we are at the very first steps in analysing the issue. We are collecting information that will help us to decide on a way forward,” said MP Clothilde Mukakarangwa, deputy chairperson of the committee.

After hearing from the stakeholders, the committee will submit its report to the Lower House and a Plenary will agree on the way forward.

Appearing before the committee yesterday, the insolvency administrator for DN International— whose job is to manage the company’s assets — said that the government’s help is needed to help the company’s creditors get their money back.

"We really need the government’s help in solving this problem,” a seemingly overwhelmed Nizeyimana told the MPs.

When contacted, KCB managing director Maurice Toroitich said in taking over the estate, they followed the liquidation and insolvency laws under which the bank, as the creditor, acquired the estate.

He said for those claiming to have made down payments on homes within the estate; they would be given back their money if they prove they made those payments in KCB as had been agreed upon with the original developer.

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