Eastleigh business leaders have dismissed renewed allegations linking the area’s investments to fraud and illicit financing, calling the claims false, politically motivated, and unsupported by evidence.
In a strongly worded statement issued on January 13, 2026, the Eastleigh Business Community said major developments, including what it describes as the largest mall in East and Central Africa, were financed through documented private equity and regulated banking channels long before the alleged U.S. fraud cases occurred.
Addressing Kenyans, business leaders, elders, entrepreneurs, and the media, the community said Eastleigh was “under attack—not by facts, not by evidence, but by persistent falsehoods, innuendo, and deliberate propaganda” recycled over decades to damage the reputation of its businesses and residents.
The statement said allegations linking Eastleigh to proceeds of sea piracy, misappropriated public funds, tax evasion, and most recently fraud allegedly committed in the United States were “false, reckless, and deeply damaging.”
Responding specifically to claims that investments in Eastleigh, including the redevelopment of a major mall, were financed through proceeds of fraud in Minnesota, the community said the accusations collapse under basic scrutiny.
“The facts are simple and verifiable,” Eastleigh Business Community Chairman Ahmed Abdullahi Yare said. “The mall in question was first developed in 2009, then known as COMESA Mall, using documented private equity investments and regulated bank financing channels.”
The statement added that the property was demolished in 2018 and redeveloped into the current BBS Mall by the same proprietor, a businessman who has operated in Eastleigh for decades.
“The alleged fraud in Minnesota occurred between 2022 and 2025, many years later. Chronologically, legally, and logically, the two cannot be linked,” Yare said.
According to the statement, none of the allegations have originated from investigative agencies, regulators, or courts of law, but rather from “a small number of political actors, self-proclaimed clergy, and social media commentators” accused of seeking to inflame tensions.
While noting that the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC) and other institutions have been engaged, the community warned that “a lie repeated often enough risks being mistaken for truth.”
The Eastleigh Business Community described the area as a product of decades of entrepreneurship, particularly within the Somali community, built through pooled savings, joint ventures, property redevelopment, and partnerships with regulated financial institutions.
“Eastleigh’s businesses were not built overnight,” Yare added.
Highlighting its economic role, the community said Eastleigh supports tens of thousands of jobs, contributes significant tax revenue, and reflects Kenya’s ethnic and religious diversity.
“Eastleigh will not be destroyed by false narratives,” Yare said, calling for investigations to be evidence-based and for action from authorities against incitement and misinformation.
The rebuttal comes after claims by former Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua, who alleged that a mall in Nairobi’s Eastleigh area was linked to large-scale fraud schemes in the United States.
The alleged fraud, which reportedly involved individuals based in Minnesota, is said to have led to the theft of more than $300 million intended to feed vulnerable children during the Covid-19 pandemic, with some of those implicated said to have Kenyan connections.
