Kenya Stockholm Blog

Barbz’s Property Sold, Millions Wired Into Pastor’s Account

Barbz and her new Pastor Boyfriend settled in an apartment block in Upplands Väsby in Stockholm. However, a life that had been promising and full of expectation suddenly turned into a nightmare. After the Pastor lost his job, he also lost his apartment rendering the new couple homeless.

To prevent them from being thrown into the streets, a neighbor sympathized with Barbz and accommodated her while the Pastor was rescued by a youthful Church member who took him into his apartment at Hagsätra in Stockholm. At the time the Pastor lost his flat, the youth, who hails from Kenya, had risen to the rank of a Youth Preacher, helping the Pastor at the Church.

During their ordeal as homeless people in Stockholm, Barbz had very little contact with the Pastor. The couple was going through hell on earth. What Barbz was not aware of was that the Pastor had not been paying rent and that at the time they were chucked out, the housing company had been stretched to the limit with unpaid bills.

When the truth eventually surfaced, it emerged that the house was not rented in the name of Pastor Mapozi but in the name of a Nigerian national who was married with children. The Naija had come to the assistance of the Pastor as a friend when the Pastor was in need.

The problem was that the Pastor’s record was so tainted that he could not be allowed by any company to rent a flat anywhere in Sweden.  Because the Naija (name on file) was in the good books of the system, he volunteered to help the Pastor out with his housing problem, just before Barbz arrived in Stockholm. The agreement was that the Naija would stand for the contract and take responsibility with the Pastor’s job being paying rent and other utility bills. This did not happen because the Pastor defaulted.

By the time the Naija noticed that the situation was really bad, the Pastor had allegedly accumulated a debt of over 100,000 kr. Part of the Pastor’s responsibility was to sort out the phone bill. Since he was in the business of defaulting on every deal, both the accumulated house rent and phone bill became so huge that the Naija quickly landed in the house of the dreaded Swedish Kronofogden (the debt collection agency).

The Naija then started hunting for the Pastor to teach him a lesson. The situation at the Church was also very bad because the Pastor had not been paying church rent for almost eight months and the congregation was on notice that the Church would be closed down unless the rent was paid.

One day, the Naija traced the Pastor at the Church and demanded to speak to him. He was preparing members of the congregation to begin “talking in tongues”. A Kenyan (name on file) was manning the door and when he weighed the Naija’s mood, he concluded that the situation was a bit dangerous because the Naija looked like someone who was baying for the Pastor’s blood for some inexplicable reason. The Kenyan feared that the Naija needed to cool. He looked like a wounded lion.

The Ksh 7 million Land deal
Sensing danger, the Kenyan refused the Naija entry into the Church, arguing that he needed to wait until after the Church service to spill his anger. By the time he left the Church compound, the Naija made it clear that the congregation knew that the Pastor had messed up his life through non-payment of rent after he came to his rescue to address the Pastor’s state of homelessness. The Naija lambasted the Pastor for being evil, arguing that he was a family man who did not deserve that kind of treatment from a person calling himself a Pastor.

Just before they were thrown out of the house, both the Pastor and Barbz had began the process of recovering Barbz’s property in Kenya. Something that irritated the Pastor was that the process was taking too long as the Pastor’s financial crisis also deepened. The Pastor had already drawn up a scheme on how the cash would be used and the leading strategy was that the couple would start rolla-skating bizz which, the Pastor believed, would ensure that the couple’s fortunes grew to transform them into permanent millionaires “in Euros!”

According to documents made available to KSB, the sale of Barbz’s property in Kenya appeared to have been a slow process but once the process got in motion, things were moving really fast. Barbz had a piece of land in Mombasa and according to an “Agreement for the sale of land” released By Barbz’s agent who was also based in Mombasa, the land was sold to a German national whose name and address is also contained in the agreement. The agreement is dated 1st December 2008 and begins by stating the basic rules. A copy of the agreement has also been availed to police investigating the case. The agreement says in part:

“-Name withheld- of Postal Office Box number xxxx Mombasa (hereafter called the “Vendor” which expression shall where the context so admits include his/her successors and assigns) of the one part”.

“-Name withheld- of Post Office Box xxx (hereafter called “the purchaser” which expression shall where the context so admits include his/her personal representatives and assigns) of the other part”

The document then goes on to say that “the Vendor is the registered owner of a property situated at xxxx more particularly known as Diani Beach measuring approximately xxx acres”.

The document goes further and says that “The Vendor at the special instance and request of the purchaser has agreed to sell and the purchaser has agreed to purchase the said property free from encumbrances”.

In a more graphic section titled “How this agreement witnesseth as follows”, the document states that “In consideration of the sum of Kenya shillings Seven million only (Kshs 7,000,000) receipt whereof the Vendor hereby acknowledges, the Vendor hereby transfers unto the Purchaser the said property free from encumbrances”.

The Transactions To Pastor’s Church Account
Further text in this section states that “The Vendor hereby guarantees and binds himself that he has got title to the said property and in the event of lack of title or any other cause, the Vendor shall immediately be liable to refund the purchase price plus interests thereon of 10%. The document also continues to state that “The vendor shall immediately upon the execution of these presents, give vacant possession of the property to the purchaser”.

After the signing of the agreement with all the legal requirements, it took time for cash to begin flowing in. During this period, Barbz was already in Sweden, living a difficult life with a neighbor as the Pastor remained accommodated in a house in Hagsätra by a Kenyan youth who had become one of his most loyal followers and who had also attracted a good number of Kenyans to the Church.

A Kenyan admitted to KSB that he admired the youthful Kenyan Pastor who had been with the Church for over five years and that part of his decision to join the Church was based on the performance of the Kenyan youth whose name is also on file.

After the agreement was signed, the German national, who resides in Kulmbach, Germany, returned to his country to begin the transfer of funds directly to Barbz in Sweden. In a document written and signed by this German (document on file), the cash was being sent in Euros and the initial dispatch was 3.400 Euros that was sent to Barbz directly in December.

The second installment was 5.000 Euros, also sent to Barbz, the third was 12.500 Euros sent directly into the Bank account of the Pastor’s Church, another installment was 12.500 Euros sent to the Pastor through the Churche’s account and another installment was 6.000 Euros also sent directly into the Pastor’s Church account. This is the tiny part of the transactions which is well documented. In the document, the German says:

“I hereby confirm that the following amounts (listed above) are ALL for the purchase of Land/Plots in Kenya only. The use of the money is absolutely not intended for the pay back of any loan. With kind regards from Germany”. The letter is signed.

Other documents containing details of bank transfers directly to the Pastor’s Church account (with the name of the Church clearly stated) and Western Union transfers are on the hands of KSB. We will detail these transactions in the next installment because I have to go to bed now.

Okoth Osewe

February 26, 2009 Posted by makozewe | News & Analysis | 23 Comments