Why Kagame Is After Kenyan Real Estate Fraudster Nathan Lloyd Ndung’u

A court in Nairobi on Monday, February 7, released on bond a Kenyan businessman whose real estate development firm defrauded Rwandan property buyers 10 years ago.

Nathan Lloyd Ndung’u, the Kenyan-American businessman who owned the now defunct DN International, was last week arrested in Nairobi over the fraud case he faces in Rwanda.

Rwanda’s prosecution wants the man extradited to Rwanda to account for the crimes he allegedly committed in Rwanda.

According Rwanda news reports, in 2007, DN International acquired a loan of more than Rwf800 million from Fina Bank to develop 28 housing units, in Masaka Sector, Kigali.

In January 2010, DN International, embarked on a project to construct more than 50 residential housing units it was to complete by the end of that year.

A year later, Lloyd was arrested and detained at Remera Police station in Kigali before he fled the country that same year after an investigation was commissioned over fraud allegations.

By November 2011, it emerged that 19 people including top government officials had fallen victim to a scam after the homes they had bought were advertised for auction by Fina Bank, the financier of the project.

Apparently, on receiving money from homeowners, Lloyd did not deposit the money to the Bank, but instead diverted the money to other ventures.

Lloyd was this week arrested as he arrived in Nairobi from the US.

He was flagged on Interpol’s Red Notice following a case in which he was tried in Rwanda and sentenced, in absentia, to five years in prison.

He was produced before a Nairobi court on Wednesday, February 2.

The prosecution in Kenya, it is reported, made an application to detain him at the Inland Container Depot Police Station for 21 days, pending a formal extradition request from Rwanda.

His lawyers opposed the detention, saying he should be released on bail, but the prosecutor opposed his release saying he was a flight risk given he had left Kenya while an international arrest warrant was still out for him.

As reported, the prosecution argued that being a dual citizen, Ndung’u might head back to the US, where he also has citizenship.

More charges

In 2017, people who formerly delivered supplies or bought homes from the firm launched a fresh lawsuit demanding payment for investments made on the development of one of the housing projects by DN International (Green Park Villas) in Gasabo District, which was incomplete when the firm became insolvent.

In March 2016, Parliament looked into a petition in which at least 120 people demanded payment of more than Rwf700 million from the defunct real estate developer.

In August 2019, creditors celebrated a court ruling that cancelled an auction through which KCB Bank Rwanda had taken over their land.