Kenyan businesswoman Mary Wambui has days to pay $775,000 or lose her $73.6 million hotel

Kenya's High Court has ordered billionaire businesswoman Mary Wambui Mungai to deposit KES 100 million ($775,000) within seven days to prevent Equity Bank from auctioning the Glee Hotel, her KES 9.5 billion ($73.6 million) luxury property in Runda, Nairobi.

The court order temporarily halts the planned auction while Wambui raises the good-faith deposit. The intervention follows a default on an KES 8.267 billion ($64.1 million) loan facility that Equity Bank extended to her companies. The bank moved to recover the debt through the auction of the Runda property after negotiations broke down.

Court documents show Wambui made two settlement proposals that Equity Bank rejected. She first offered to settle for KES 5 billion ($38.8 million), which would have required the bank to absorb a loss of more than KES 3 billion on the original loan. When the bank refused, she raised her offer to KES 7 billion ($54.3 million). Equity Bank rejected that offer as well and proceeded with auction proceedings.

Wambui's legal team has responded by challenging the basis of the bank's right to pursue her directly. The defense argues that Equity Bank must first exhaust all assets held by the primary corporate borrower before pursuing guarantors. If the High Court accepts that argument, it could restrict the speed at which Kenyan commercial banks can recover loans from guarantors following a corporate default, a significant potential change to established lending practice in the country.

The Glee Hotel is situated on eight acres along the Northern Bypass in Runda. The property features 211 rooms and conferencing facilities and was built to attract the international business tourism market. It sits at the centre of Wambui's commercial real estate portfolio and represents one of the largest assets in her empire.

Wambui is a prominent figure in Kenyan business and political circles. She built significant wealth through her company Purma Holdings, which secured government contracts spanning military uniforms and food supply to the security sector. In late 2021, the Kenya Revenue Authority charged her with tax evasion involving KES 2.2 billion ($17.1 million). She fled a police raid at a Nairobi hotel before surrendering to authorities. The Director of Public Prosecutions dropped those charges in early 2023 following the payment of fines.

The seven-day deadline set by the High Court will determine whether Wambui can access sufficient liquidity to preserve the property or whether Equity Bank proceeds with what would be one of the largest bank repossessions in recent Kenyan commercial history.