DP Ruto acquires Ahmednassir’s Mihrab Plaza as he courts NEP for his 2022 presidential bid

Deputy President William Ruto has managed to persuade flamboyant Nairobi lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi to dispose of his imposing FCB Mihrab Plaza, the three-year-old Sh2.3 billion 25-floor building in Nairobi’s upmarket Kilimani suburb.

The glamorous building acts as the First Community Bank Headquarters which, ironically, was founded by Ahmednasir Abdullahi from suspected proceeds of piracy ransom paid off by desperate shipping companies whose vessels had been seized by ruthless Somali pirates off the Gulf of Aden.

The top-secret deal to sell the building to Ruto had been reached with shareholders of First Community Bank led by Senior Counsel Abdulahi to offload the controversial property to Mandera Governor Ibrahim Ali Roba who is acting as a front for the politically beleaguered Deputy President.

Together with toppled Majority Leader at the National Assembly Aden Duale and Governor Roba are DP Ruto’s point men in the NEP region.

Iconic Multi-Million FCB Mihrab Building In Nairobi

Both SC Abdullahi and Governor Roba belong to Ruto’s amorphous Tanga Tanga political outfit and have agreed to broker the deal – as a money-laundering venture – and carry the risk on behalf of the DP after he promised the Somali duo senior cabinet positions in the next government.

The 46-year-old second-term governor was assured he would be among the first appointees into Ruto’s cabinet and his county-mate SC Abdullahi landing the Attorney General position.

Teams from both sides were this week busy working out details of the sale believed to be in the region of a staggering Sh2.4 billion.

Recently, Ahmednasir Abdullahi who is believed to own 50% of the building through his FCB shareholding unveiled a private state of the art penthouse office on the topmost floor of the imposing building, with a panoramic view of the Nairobi skyline.

The purchase of the Mihrab Plaza gives DP Ruto an opportunity to integrate dirty money back into the legal national economy while providing a safe investment and prime property. The tactic is usually employed by international criminals and drug dealers to enjoy assets and derived funds having camouflaged the origin of the money used for payment.

In Kenya, money laundering through real estate transactions has emerged as a national security threat for anti-fraud detectives at the Assert Recovery Agency and the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission.

Already Nairobi has been identified by US anti-money laundering investigators as among top African locations through which billions of corruption proceeds and illicit funds are channeled into the booming city’s property market.

Related