Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

A foreign firm reportedly defrauded Kenyan businessmen of more than Sh800 million before its directors sneaked out of the country to Uganda in unclear circumstances.

Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has launched investigations after suppliers reported that they supplied Roko Construction Company with building materials and services for their projects at Riverside, Cascadia Apartments at Two Rivers and Enaki in Kitusuru area, Nairobi, on diverse dates between 2019 and March this year.

The project developers in their statement to the police said they had paid the company the full amounts before they left the country.

During the transaction, the company was represented by a South African Derek Claassen, who is one of the directors.

Detectives swore affidavits in respect to the company’s accounts which were served to the respective banks.

The probe further revealed that most of the payments for the project were wired to a certain ac- count in Switzerland.

“The project owners have confirmed that they paid all the amounts. We are also investigating reports of obtaining money by false pretence and money laundering,” a senior detective told People Daily.

The DCI said Claassen had been sum- moned to the DCI headquarters where he was grilled and his passport retained as the matter was still under investigations.

Claassen, 63, however, police say man- aged to sneak out of the country and a probe later revealed that he had two pass- ports and used one of them to fly out of the country, according to the DCI detectives.

One of the passports number M00089645, was issued in June 2013 and was to expire in June next year. He also had another passport, number M000211267, issued in March 2017 which was to expire in March 2027.

Withdrew bonds Police, however, said some of the challenges in the investigation is that all the directors are out of the country.

As a result, detectives will apply for international war- rants of arrest for the directors.

In what appeared to be a well-calculated move, after being paid, the company di- rectors secretly withdrew the bonds from the bank which were used as financial security against default.

The bond could have cushioned the suppliers, in case the contractor failed to complete the project or pay in full.

“The contractor formally withdrew the bond even before all the suppliers were paid. This was suspect. Unfortunately, the nature of the contract leaves the suppliers with no other recourse,” a senior detective said.

So far, a total of 22 witnesses have re- corded their statements with the police. Detectives have also visited the project sites and obtained the details of the company’s registration and the directors.

Bad cheques According to the DCI’s preliminary report, the traders would supply the materi- als which were later paid for after 30 days and since the deal involved a lot of money, the parties developed trust and continued supplying the materials long after the payments had stopped.

Detectives have also recorded statements from officials of two banks –Sid- ian Bank and Guaranty Trust (GT) Bank –where the company held accounts. Investigations also sought to establish how money was wired out of the country and also who was behind the issuance of the bad cheques to the suppliers.

Some of the complainants were, however, unable to furnish the detectives with the documents for the period they had been supplying the company with building materials.

According to the records, a Kenyan Kha- lid Mohamed Hamoud and holder of identity card number 31308320 is also listed as one of the directors of company. However, contacted by the detectives, Hamoud said he had left the company before the projects began.

Other directors are Jean Mann Koehler (chairperson), Blafler Kurt Walfer, Mark Walfer Koehler, Peter Mugarura, Brigitte Koehler, Jost Friendelm Erwin and Willie Swanepoe