Embakasi Ranching's first female chair ousted as factions trade corruption claims

The first ever female chair for the 52-year-old controversial Embakasi Ranching Company Limited in Nairobi, Ms Phideli Wangari never settled in office before she was dislodged.

She had led the shareholders in an Annual General Meeting of September 29, 2023, after her predecessor James Njoroge died on August 26, 2023.

Being Njoroge's vice chairperson, the other directors convinced her to convene the AGM and where they promised her total support to rise to the top seat.

"It was good sailing until we convened our first boardroom meeting and two of the directors failed to show up. Two weeks later, I was served with a court order to cease referring myself as a chairperson," Ms Wangari said.

Insiders allege Mr Gabriel Gitonga and Mr David Wanderi commenced a boardroom plot to overthrow her.

But she survived the plot on September 12, 2023, when five(5) of her nine(9) board members demanded an emergency sitting from the company secretary Mr Bernard Kiragu, but lacked the prerequisite quorum of nine(9) members to kick her out.

With her majority numbers, she survived the threat and commenced networking with government agencies to find a solution to the ranching problem proved to be that of non declaration, double allocations, grabbing and outright theft of plots.

Mr Wanderi said his initial opposition to Ms Wangari was based on a strong desire to pursue a fresh, transparent and speedy search for a solution.

"She represented the old office's way of doing things. Our shareholders were living in raw agony of waiting for title deeds. I was convinced there was an effective way of doing it and Ms Wangari was not the ideal chair to do so," Mr Wanderi said.

She explained that three(3) months into office, her board had effectively split into two(2) with her side holding on with an edge.

"But as time progressed, all the other directors united and ceased to attend my meetings. I started getting strange phone calls that reminded me that Embakasi chairpersons end up dead and whether I had written a will," she said.

The chairmen were Mr Muhuri Muchiri (1976-2006), Mr Kariuki Mwaganu (2006-2009) Mr Mwangi Thuita (2010 to 2018), and Mr Njoroge (2019 to 2023).

Interestingly, all the four(4) chairmen died of sudden deaths and their postmortems indicated they succumbed to heart attacks—a classic case of Sanchez’s reggae song, Never Dis Di Man where he states that you could be living this minute, the  next minute you are gone away.

All of them died of heart attacks while embroiled in confrontations with connected operatives within government.

Mr Muhuri Muchiri died in 2006 as he threatened to lead shareholders to oppose reelection of Mwai Kibaki as the president unless he gave out title deeds while Mr Kariuki Mwaganu died in 2009 after he threatened to lead shareholders to oppose the Kibaki succession plan unless he titled the shareholders.  

Mr Mwangi Thuita died in 2018 battling President Uhuru Kenyatta directive that the company be dissolved and titles issued without a verified register while Mr Njoroge died fighting President William Ruto’s drive to pick titling from where Mr Kenyatta left without verifying the register.

Ms Wangari said had she insisted to continue serving as chair, she today would be dead.

"I can today tell you for sure that the problem with Embakasi Ranching emanates from high offices and the board acts as a weapon, not as a ranch's governance tool," she alleged.

She added that "those holding the ranch captive know no law, morals or justice as long as there is an inch of soil up for grabs".

She said her woes deepened when she started seeking the intervention of Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua to help the Mt Kenya shareholders who had waited for titles since 1976.

"I was sent a message on my phone asking me whether I knew Embakasi Ranching is a national security issue that was being monitored from more important offices than that of Mt Kenya kingpins," she claimed.

She told us that it became apparent that she was being targeted for elimination and though she first ignored the harassment, it started making her paranoid.

"Being a chair for this thoroughly looted ranching company is like a death wish. I thought being a staunch christian and a do-gooder is enough investment in faith to survive but I came to realise greed, corruption and selfish interests know no spirits," she said.

She quipped that "there are those little things in greed that faith knows no cure and I risked dying if I insisted on being the chair".

Ms Wangari said she simply stopped attending board meetings, switched off her phone and got herself busy with her evangelical chores.

"My fellow directors were waiting for my disinterest to continue sitting in the board and they moved with speed and closed up satellite offices that I had established to help elderly shareholders (some as old as 100 years) access our services nearest their villages instead of travelling to Nairobi," she said.

Embakasi Ranching shareholders are mostly drawn from Kiambu and Murang'a counties.

It was founded by the founding father of the nation Mzee Jomo Kenyatta and some of his cronies in 1976  serving it as chairman was deemed to be delegated executive power, until occupiers of that office started dying.

She said the director who was acting as her personal aide, Mr Joseph Njenga was the surprise deserter from her corner to join the other camp "and that is when I realised I was on my own".

However, Mr Njenga told us that "she became a one woman show who listened not to alternative opinion, insisting she was the alpha and Omega of decision making".

"We risked derailing the cause of overseeing the principal goal of righting the mess that is Embakasi by concentrating too much on her peacocking exploits," Mr Njenga said.

Mr Njenga said "Ms Wangari is a nice woman, has a big heart and means well, but lacks managerial tact to lead people".

Mr Wanderi said "Ms Wangari became a perfect example of what Embakasi Ranching never stood for...go and ask her what happened to the Sh15,000 she collected from 400 shareholders...in the name of balloting".

He said "we are pursuing her yes, not to eliminate her but to get our shareholders' cash".

Ms Wangari dismissed the allegations as "the trick of making a dog look rabid so that it's killing can be justified".

She said that it was her accusers who corrupted the shareholders' cash "and I have the evidence".

A lawyer acting for the ranching company in some of the many court cases bedeviling it, Mr Timothy Kariuki, told AVDelta News that "the problems arise from complex conspiracies, oversights, and negligence".

Ms Wangari said leadership squabbles in the ranching company are a creation of many factors.

Lawyer Kariuki said leadership slots are always mired in litigations "and it is only after intrigues in orders issued, decrees set and acceptance of procedure in admitting board of directors will the many structural and duty execution defects shall be healed".

Mr Kariuki said he knows Ms Wangari as a robust go getter woman.

"But the issue of who serves as chairman of the board lies with shareholders in an AGM, the office of registrar of companies that must admit the directors elected who are captured in a CR12 certificate and the directors sitting to decide who serves as chair and other management slots," he said.

Mr Kariuki said so far, the ranching company has litigations in all of its structures hence existing as a compound legal problem also captured by high stakes interests.

Before the Wangari fiasco set in, the ranch had 14 directors who were elected on April 13, 2019’s AGM and who were issued with a CR12 certificate by the registrar of companies on July 20, 2019.

In Wangari's AGM, three(3) deceased directors--Mr Njoroge, Ms Wanjiru Richu, and Charles Thuah--were replaced alongside the 'dissidents' Mr Gitonga and Mr Wanderi as well as Ms Peninah Mwangi, and Andrew Okumu who had since resigned.

New names into the board were Peninah Waruinge, Julius Njoroge, Jacinta Waceke, Peter Waiharo, and Simon Wainaina. 

Besides Ms Wangari, the other old office holders were Mr Njenga, Mboci Njehu and Christopher Ngigi, this move seeing directors lowers from 14 to nine in conformity with the new Companies Act.

"Today, Mr Wanderi who had been kicked out in the latest AGM is the acting chairman, explaining how the ranching company entangles itself in leadership complexities as shareholders continue to die waiting for their title deeds and the government maintaining the noncommittal attitude," Ms Wangari said.