An engineering firm has written to DCI boss George Kinoti to investigate management of the National Bank of Kenya over an extortion cartel.
In 2016, the NBK controversially terminated a Sh1 billion loan advanced to Put Sarajevo, the engineering firm, after it allegedly changed its shareholding against its deal with the bank. But in a letter to the DCI, Put Sarajevo alleges that the NBK resorted to the punitive tactics after they rejected demands for kickbacks.
The NBK said it had to terinate the loan after Put Sarajevo breached the contract by clandestinely changing the company’s shareholders. New chairman Usamah Timimi said no shareholding had changed, though he was in the process of purchasing controlling interest.
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“The bank has been sabotaging our operations from the time I took over the company due to my refusal to be extorted by a proxy of the managing director, Mr Stephen Mule,” a document seen by the Star states
Put Sarajevo says that before the loan was terminated and the firm instructed to repay the pending Sh1 billion, the bank sent Mule, the Matungulu MP, to their offices to extort money on behalf of the NBK boss. Efforts to get a comment from the CEO, Wilfred Musau, were unsuccessful. His phone was off.
According to the letter seen by the Star, Mule allegedly told the firm he was in charge of handling the relationship between the bank and Put Sarajevo and the firm must “deal with him for anything to move”.
Yesterday, Mule dismissed the claims.
“Put Sarajevo leadership has changed. There is the current owner and the original owner. From what I gathered from intelligence, they had issues with National Bank because of their debts,” Mule told the Star. Asked how he knew the details, he said, “The original owners were my friends. I can’t deny them… But I don’t know the current management.”
The letter to the DCI says Musau had also made such overtures indirectly. “At the end of the [2016] meeting, the MD called me aside and told me that if I wanted things to move well, I must follow the protocol established prior to my existence and host my guest properly.”