Auction of DN estate put on hold

A public action by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) of a housing estate developed by the embattled DN International was put to halt by police last week on orders of Rwanda Development Board (RDB).The incomplete 50-unit estate called Green Park Villas, located in Rusororo Sector in Gasabo District was developed by DNI on a loan facility from KCB-Rwanda.The bank had earlier issued a notice of intention to auction properties of the debt ridden real-estate developer, over an estimated Rwf 3 billion loan acquired from the lender in 2010 to kick-start the Rusororo project.The auctioning exercise had seen over 100 bidders registered by the bank’s appointed receiver, to contest for ownership of the semi-finished high end villas.Each unit had been valued at Rwf75m, upon completion. “About 15 minutes into the auctioning, police came in and stopped the exercise,” a bidder who requested to remain anonymous told The New Times. When contacted, KCB-Rwanda’s Managing Director, Maurice K. Toroitich, confirmed the development saying the move to auction the estate was suspended by the authorities without clear reasons to the auctioneers.“The auction exercise was suspended until further notice and up to now we don’t have any reason why we were stopped,” Toroitich said.However, Speaking to The New Times, on Sunday, the CEO of RDB, John Gara, said the auctioning was stopped to give more attention to the various people who have their money in the project.RDB is the caretaker of all investors in the country.“We want to cater for the interests of all people who spent their money on the project. But we hope very soon we shall come up with a better solution,” Gara said.The development to suspend the auction comes a few months after a group of companies that supplied materials, and labourers to the project, petitioned different institutions asking for recovery of the money owed to them by DNI.The amount, according to Francis Bayingana, the representative of the aggrieved suppliers, totals to Rwf470 million. “We still don’t know what is behind this delay to solve our grievances because it’s a long time since we started requesting for our payments,” Bayingana said.They have also cried foul over the failure of local authorities, particularly Gasabo District’s failure to solve their grievances.The embattled firm, whose management led by CEO Nathan Lloyd who seems to have vanished, is also embroiled in another row after failing to deliver title deeds to 19 people who fully paid for houses in Hill View Estate, another project by the same developer. The deeds, as it turned out, were still with another commercial bank—FINA Bank, which had financed the construction of the estate, also based in Gasabo District.Lloyd was temporarily detained last year over the Hill View Estate saga, but was released a few days later, under conditions that up to now remain unclear.Upon being released, he reportedly left the country with his family, leaving the company in the hands of one Joseph Kapukha, the then Managing Director, who has since resigned but remained in Rwanda.

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Auction of DN estate put on hold