When Rwandese Investor Desire Muhinyuza was introduced to Kenyan Kirimi Koome to assist him in registering his online business he never knew that he would turn against him and swindle him off millions.
Desire was introduced to Koome by an acquittance from Rwanda who assured him that he was reliable and would help him to register his business as he sorted out his papers since he could not register one in his names.
They registered a company StayOnline Ltd which is an online marketplace with branches in Rwanda and Zambia and put Koome as a director temporarily as he sorted his papers.
International Merchants invested 2.26 million USD equivalent to over Sh 360 M which was deposited in StayOnline accounts at the United Bank of Africa (UBA).
However, things started going south when greedy Koome started making demands to Desire asking for money and also issuing threats to him.
According to court papers, both were signatories to the account but Koome went ahead and withdrew Sh 15 million from the accounts by lying to Desire that it was for paying taxes when it was not.
Desire regularised his papers and asked Koome to hand over the company to him but he has made a U-turn and refused to voluntary hand over the company back to him.
To make matters worse, Koome even attempted withdraw all the 2.26 USD dollars from UBA bank to his personal account in Equity Bank.
That’s when Desire involved the Kenyan authorities who swung into action and got freeze orders which barred UBA from releasing any further money to Koome.
Koome has since been charged with several counts of fraud after the DPP approved charges against him.
Speaking in court, Desire’s lawyer Danstan Omari said Koome was giving a bad name to Kenya but thanks to police and judiciary foreign investors now have faith in our system and can invest in Kenya.
