Woman Painfully Narrates How She Lost KSh 6 Million Hotel in Karen Home People People Beldina Kirito: Woman Painfully Narrates How She Lost KSh 6 Million Hotel in Karen Tuesday, February 08, 2022 at 10:02 PM by Susan Mwenesi
Kenyan baker and businesswoman Beldina Kirito suffered a KSh 6 million loss recently after the Karen Residents Association stopped her from running a hotel in the area
Beldina had initially failed to let them know they were setting up shop in the area and despite getting the chairman and having a meeting, they were still unwanted In the end, they closed up the business, counted their losses which included refunding four wedding clients and started the journey towards healing
Beldina Kirito knows only too well what it means to watch your whole investment disappear into thin air as you are left counting the losses.
In a YouTube video, Beldina says it all started in 2020 when she got wind of prime property that could be ideal for setting up a KSh 6 million hotel investment in Karen. “On September 1st 2020, is when we opened the hotel, and it was a dream come true because I’m usually passionate about cooking and baking. Its a venture we had started with my husband. The dream started in April, when there was lockdown and we were really cooking,” she says.
The property which sits on a two-acre piece of land was perfectly set for the ‘Elegant Garden Hotel’. “We saw a different business opportunity that was not in our plan because now we could do weddings, photo sessions, outside catering, accommodation. So we deciced to give it a try,” she narrated. Hit the ground running The two would hit the ground running and set up the hotel in two weeks with a launch to come in the following weeks.
It later emerged that they had not sought the approval of the Karen Residence Association and a day before the launch the area Officer Commanding Station (OCS) notified them that the association had reached out to her to stop the launch. “In Karen, you have to inform the community before you do such things and that’s where our problem started," said the YouTuber. They contacted the chairman and after lengthy talks, they agreed to a quiet launch and have a subsequent meeting to agree on the hotel operations. The two groups were sup[posed to hold the meeting before setting up the hotel and Beldina skipped the step. Brought up another hurdle The launch of the hotel went ahead anyway but the community brought up another hurdle to jump, citing the property was being used for commercial purposes in a residential area. “All this time it’s a war between us and the community. Resident saying, they can’t allow our hotel to be in their midst," said Beldina. “They reached appoint where we had a disagreement and they closed the barrier…that day they decided they are not opening the barrier for people going to the hotel and anybody coming there was being told the Hotel is illegal and we lost big time,” said Beldina.
Not ready for that war The day they made losses was a wake-up call that and they realised they were not ready to continue with that kind of war. The OCS said that they would need to notify the community each time they had an event. A subsequent meeting did not help the situation any better. “We could not stay in that place… the landlady was trying to get the certificate of change of user but she could not find it. So we were given three months to clear from the area," said Beldina. "We had invested so much; by this time the place had picked. When we were leaving we had to do refunds for four weddings,” she added.
The couple left in mid -January of last year and hooked up with new partners for a new hotel in Adams Arcade and in November 2021 they closed shop. “The hotel is not there and guys we have not died, we are still alive. This was a big loss that had faced us," she said. Beldina is currently seeing a therapist to help her cope with the huge loss and she has since urged people to talk whenever things come to a head. “Despite, the business going down, I have learned a lot from it and the kind of network I have right now is just incredible,” she said.