A company belonging to former Thika Town MP Patrick Wainaina is set for auction for non-payment of debt of an unspecified amount owed to Stanbic Bank.
In a newspaper notice, Garam Auctioneers announced they would be selling by public auction two properties registered to Mr Wainaina's Jungle Macs EPZ on February 4, 2025.
“All that parcel of land known as L.R. NO. 4953/1238 Makongeni, Thika, Kiambu County registered in the name of Patrick Kimani Wainaina g/t Jungle Macs (EPZ) Limited…” reads the public auction.
“The subject property is situated about 600 metres off Garissa Road in Makongeni, Thika Town, Kiambu County. The property is easily identifiable as Jungle Macs EPZ Limited,” added Garam.
A source at Garam disclosed that they were carrying out the auction on behalf of Stanbic Bank. The source, however, did not disclose the unpaid loan and its terms.
One of the two properties to be auctioned measures around 1.9298 acres while the other 2.4595 acres. Both have leaseholds for terms of 99 years.
Some of the features of the properties include warehouses, administration blocks, mesh sheds, parking zone, shipping container offices, sentry-controlled rooms.
The properties also have masonry perimeter walls, laundry rooms, godowns among other improvements.
Kenya is the world’s third largest macadamia producer and Africa’s second largest after South Africa.
Started in 2004, Jungle Macs EPZ Kenyan company has been processing and exporting macadamia nuts to the US, Europe and Asia.
At its height, the family-owned business accounted for more than half of the country’s total macadamia production, including 80 percent of its organic macadamia processing. Other players in the macadamia business include billionaire Peter Munga's Equatorial Nut Processors Limited and Sasini Plc.
Jungle Macs worked with more than 100,000 small-scale farmers, field agents, transporters and factory workers, creating a significant number of direct and indirect job opportunities.
In an interview that Mr Wainaina did with the Business Daily in 2013, the politician recalled how he had to sacrifice to make savings to venture into the nut processing business.
Before he made forays into the business of exporting nuts, Mr Wainaina, a trained mechanical engineer, worked for Kenya Nuts Company as an engineer in 1996. It is here that he cut his teeth in nut processing.
