Kenya’s lender Equity Bank has denied extending a KSh15 billion loan to deported Turkish businessman Arun Aydin.
Equity Bank Managing Director Gerald Warui on Wednesday, August 25, told a Parliamentary Committee that the man linked to Deputy President William Ruto’s aborted trip to Uganda does not exist in their database as a client.
“He (Arun Aydin) does not operate an Equity Bank account, and does not have a banking relationship with Equity,” said Warui.
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Finance and National Planning, chaired by Homa Bay Woman Representative Gladys Wanga, Warui further told the committee that he is not aware of the phone call purportedly made by DP Ruto to the bank to facilitate the loan.
Three weeks ago, the second in command said he helped an East African businessman to secure a KSh 15 billion kitty from Equity Bank to set up a vaccine facility in the neighboring country of Uganda.
Many Kenyans including William Ruto’s political opponents immediately thought the said businessman was Arun Aydin, prompting the parliamentary committee to summon Equity bank to give answers.
Kivumbi.co.ke has established that Equity bank could have extended KSh 15 billion loan to a team of Russian, Turkish and German investors.
The facility was said to be the brainchild of Mathias Magoola, A Ugandan that the country’s President Yoweri Museveni credited for the establishment of a vaccine which Ruto flew to Uganda to commission.
“The facility, a brainchild of Mathias Magoola and funded by Equity Bank Ltd will focus on applying biotechnology to solve the health challenges of humanity through the creation of novel drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics,” said Yoweri Museveni during the commissioning of the facility.
On August 9, Arun Aydin left the country under unclear circumstances with reports indicating the government had deported him over terrorism and money-laundering links, a suggestion that angered Ruto and his supporters.
But Interior Cabinet Fred Mating’i later clarified that the Turk voluntarily left the country after the two nations agreed.
While appearing before the National Assembly’s Departmental Committee on Administration and National Security, the super CS said Aydin was linked to money laundering among other criminal-related charges.
He said Kenya agreed to deport Aydin back to his mother country to be charged in Instabul.
