Nairobi landlady charged with swindling trader Sh1 million rent

Joyce Wambui Gichobi. [Lilian Chepkoech]

A businesswoman who is said to own a building in Nairobi’s CBD has been charged before a Nairobi court with obtaining money by false pretense.

Joyce Wambui Gichobi is accused of obtaining Sh1 million from Mary Njeri Munyi on the diverse dates between July 13, 2013, and April 30, 2014, by falsely pretending that she was in a position to rent her a business room.

Before the transactions, Njeri, who runs an electronic shop in Nairobi, approached Wambui intending to rent a commercial room.

The latter owned a building in which a section was still under construction and the two agreed to wait until the room was complete.

The goodwill fee was set at Sh1 million. They both agreed to make a down payment of Sh200,000 and the rest was to be cleared later.

Njeri said that in 2013, she paid a total of Sh750,000 in just five months and cleared the remaining by April the following year.

She said that all this time, Wambui kept taking her in circles only to find out later that the space she had been promised had been rented out to someone else.

Njeri said that when she asked Wambui about it, she turned violent and threatened to harm her and chased her out of her office.

She also dared her to report her to the authorities, saying she was well connected with people in high ranks in the government.

The complainant said she asked the accused to refund the money in vain. When the police were involved, Wambui was arrested and taken to court following probe.

She did not plead guilty and she was granted a bond of Sh400,000 pending mention on September 28 for pre-trial.