At least 140 people say they have lost their hard-earned cash to a firm purporting to sell cows imported from South Africa.

Manilla Farm, a Nairobi based company, promised the farmers they would get cows which are seven months pregnant for Sh280,000.

It gave them the option of buying the holstein friesians on hire purchase by placing a deposit of Sh35,000 and paying a monthly premium of Sh8,000 for three years in addition to a Sh11,270 insurance fee for each cow, which was said to have a milk production capacity of 45 litres a day.

Those interviewed by the Daily Nation say they saw the advertisement in the local dailies from mid last year, paid for the pedigree cow in October last year but are yet to get the cows.

They said their efforts to get an explanation from Manilla had been futile since they were always told to be patient.

“I even reported the matter to police, I wrote a statement, then was referred back to the office, which has been taking me round in circles,” Mr Nduati Githere, who says he had paid a deposit of Sh105,000 for three cows and an insurance fee for two at Sh22,540.

Central Police Criminal Investigations chief Zachary Nangulu said: “The matter has been reported to us. We are on top of things and we are tracking the farm’s bosses. We will make arrests soon.”

OFFICES EMPTY

The Nation on Tuesday found the Manilla offices, next to the Meridian Hotel, locked.

A security guard said the owners had recently packed up and moved, adding that he had witnessed a number of people breaking down at the gate after discovering they had lost their money.

Mr David Mwaniki from Kajiado said he paid a deposit of Sh121,000 for three cows and Sh35,000 for insurance, besides spending a further Sh200,000 on cow sheds made to Manilla Farm’s specifications.

Mr Lucas Oluoch from Siaya County said he had lost Sh92,500 while Ms Sarah Karimi from Karen said he had paid the farm Sh46,200 and spent Sh200,000 on construction.

They said they reported the matter to police who conducted a search which revealed that the Farm was registered under Emilio Kibui Mwangi.

They had tried to reach Mr Mwangi but both his mobile phone lines were switched off and he did not answer text messages, emails or Facebook messages, they said.

A simple search on Google showed that Mr Mwangi contested the Othaya Parliamentary seat in 2013 under the Farmers Party and lost to Mary Wambui, the current MP.

“It was an expensive exercise, an exercise in futility, it pains a lot,” said Mr Githere, who added that he had sold five cows to make room for the new ones.

Mr Moses Mbugua, a director of the Westbank Construction Company, was contracted by the Nairobi based firm to construct cow sheds for farmers at various places in Kenya, but is yet to receive payment nine months after he completed the project.

I entered into a contract with the Manilla farm in July last year to build cow sheds for farmers. They said they were helping the farmers acquire high yield milk cows,” he said, claiming he had spent Sh3.5 million to put up the sheds

And you wonder why people get killed without anything being stolen from then.Ni watu wanatambia kam hizi za kishenzi.You can be sure this Mbugua guy will never be the same again after this.