An aspiring Kisumu politician, Stephen Nyandiare, was caught up in a fraudulent gold deal that forced him to refund thousands of dollars to an American investor after the promised shipment never materialised. The event, which happened in February this year, resulted in the aspiring senator refunding 16,000 USD after a protracted dispute.
Stephen Nyandiare, who has declared his intention to vie for the Kisumu Senatorial seat in 2027, is said to have facilitated the deal through his company, Zumr Africa Ltd, which ultimately collapsed after five months of waiting, leaving the American investor out of pocket.
Documents alleged to be in the possession of sauce.co.ke detail that the dispute centres on a proposed sale of 200 kilos of gold from a Congolese national, Olivier Omatuku, to Essilux Trading, a precious minerals company based in Dubai.
Nyandiare, who is said to be a long-time friend of the American investor Kelly Radnitzer of HD Global Services Limited, convinced the investor that he was in a position to introduce him to Olivier Omatuku, who supposedly had access to gold that he was selling.
Convinced that the deal was bound to be lucrative and trusting in Nyandiare, Radnitzer travelled from his home in Texas to Nairobi, where he met with Nyandiare a number of times to finalise the arrangement.
Prior to this, Mr Nyandiare is said to have registered a company on 24 May 2023 under the name Zumr Africa with the address listed as Marsabit Plaza, Ngong Road.
The deal is said to have been formally signed on 13 May 2024, with Zumr Africa acting as the official handler and escrow agent. A contract stated, “The recognised handler of this transaction is ZUMR AFRICA LTD… who is captured in this contract as the link in-between and the only introducer of the seller to the buyer and the buyer to the seller.” In the deal, Mr Olivier Omatuku was to sell 200 kilos of gold to Essilux Trading, a precious minerals trading company based in Dubai, at a ‘discounted’ price of 40,000 USD per kg.
The agreement stipulated that an initial five-kilogramme sample would be shipped to Dubai for refining to verify its quality and value, with the buyer only paying upon receipt and verification. However, the contract contained a critical clause: all costs for taxes, levies, and air freight within the exporting country were to be split between the seller and the buyer.
The contract was signed on May 13, 2024. Nyandiare signed on behalf of Zumr Africa as the handler of the deal. Mr Basselio Awad signed on behalf of the buyer, while Olivier Omatuku signed as the seller.
On the very day the contract was signed, Zumr Africa issued an invoice for $24,000 to Radnitzer’s company for the payment of taxes. The deal involved a second company, Oasis Aviation, which was tasked with airlifting the gold from Wilson Airport.
An investigation, however, later established that Oasis Aviation existed only on its website and was not a licensed or registered aircraft carrier. The unregistered entity subsequently issued an invoice for $128,750 for its services, followed by a further $2,000 invoice from Mo Law Advocates for legal services.
After the agreements were concluded, Radnitzer travelled to Dubai to await the gold shipment. He remained there for five months, but the gold never arrived. Growing increasingly frustrated with the delays, Radnitzer began to demand a refund for the funds he had already committed to the failed venture.
The pressure eventually yielded a partial result, with $16,000 being returned to him on 8 February this year through a firm named Dexis Investments Holdings Limited. The refund, however, was accompanied by a barrage of threats and accusations from Nyandiare, communicated through his lawyers.
In a strongly worded letter, Nyandiare’s legal representatives portrayed Radnitzer as the aggressor. “Our client is a man of means and intellect who is adored globally for his excellent reputation. He does not take it lightly that you have resorted to some contemptible threats, harassment, and deployment of defamatory words/phrases actuated to soil his reputation and to taint his good name,” the lawyers wrote.
They further claimed, “He is astounded and takes great exception to your extortionist, ungrateful, malicious, slapdash and slipshod actions in the past few weeks. Particularly, your alarming impatience, unprofessionalism and spitefulness.”
For his part, Radnitzer is left with a substantial financial loss and a broken friendship, a cautionary tale of high-stakes deals that promised vast riches but delivered only protracted dispute and acrimony.
