Declared Dead While Alive’: Chinese Investor Demands KSh110 Million From Kenyan Mining Firm
PHOTO: Han Ke’s legal team outside court as the Chinese investor seeks KSh110 million in damages from Chuanshan International Mining Company.
NAIROBI, Kenya Aug 12 – A Chinese investor and former founding director of Chuanshan International Mining Company, Han Ke, is demanding KSh110 million in damages from the firm, alleging an elaborate scheme was used to strip him of his stake and identity while he was still very much alive.
Han, represented by lawyer Tonge Yoya, alleges that official records were manipulated to falsely present him as deceased, a move he says was later exploited to interfere with his ownership, directorship and business interests in Kenya.
“Our client is alive, yet the system says otherwise,” Yoya said, describing the case as an extraordinary dispute that raises serious questions about the integrity of Kenya’s public records and the protection of foreign investors.
At the centre of the controversy is a court document alleged to have falsely declared Han dead a filing that, if accepted, would have cleared the way for sweeping changes to Chuanshan’s ownership structure.
Han’s legal team says the purported death record was subsequently linked to disputed filings allegedly used to alter the company’s shareholder and directorship registers.
Han claims individuals linked to Chuanshan colluded with corrupt officials within the immigration system to facilitate the fraudulent declaration.
According to his lawyers, the scheme left him effectively erased from the company’s records and, more troublingly, unable to freely return to the country where he had built his business.
Kenya’s Companies Registration Authority is understood to have flagged irregularities in the documents used to amend Chuanshan’s shareholder information, and the matter has since drawn the attention of investigators.
Legal analysts following the case say the alleged falsification could carry serious implications spanning fraud, conspiracy and the manipulation of official state records, though the full circumstances remain subject to ongoing investigation and possible judicial determination.
Han’s compensation claim is intended to cover financial losses, reputational damage, emotional distress and lost business opportunities arising from the alleged scheme. Beyond the KSh110 million figure, his demands include:
– A public apology from Chuanshan International Mining Company
– Compensation for defamation and reputational harm
– Restoration of his rights and status within the company
– Unrestricted ability to return to Kenya
That last demand strikes at the heart of the dispute. Han’s lawyers argue that his freedom of movement should never have become entangled in a corporate ownership contest involving his falsified identity yet he currently finds himself unable to re-enter Kenya, with official records reportedly still listing him as deceased.
Han was among the founding figures behind Chuanshan’s operations in Kenya, playing a central role in developing a diatomite processing project in Baringo County.
The investment was pitched as a driver of local employment and economic activity, anchored by a Community Development Agreement projected to support up to 1,500 jobs and an industrial park spanning manufacturing and healthcare.
The company was also linked to community initiatives supplying solar panels and batteries to households with limited electricity access.
The dispute now unfolding threatens to overshadow that legacy. It comes at a delicate moment for Kenya’s extractives sector, with the government having recently opened a new tender for the Mrima Hill rare earth and niobium deposits, a resource coveted by major global powers.
Chuanshan, once considered a frontrunner in the sector, has fallen conspicuously behind amid the fallout from the scandal.
For Han, the matter has become far more than a boardroom disagreement. He maintains it concerns his identity, his reputation, his investments, and most fundamentally his right to return to a country where he has lived and worked.
His legal team says the case could set a precedent for how Kenya safeguards foreign investors against fraud carried out through the very institutions meant to protect them. As Yoya put it, the situation is “legally absurd and deeply troubling.”
As of publication, Chuanshan International Mining Company had not issued a public response to the allegations.
The broader question the case raises may prove just as consequential as its outcome: what safeguards exist to prevent an investor from being stripped of his company, his reputation, and even his legal existence while he is still alive to contest it?
The answer could shape not only Han’s personal legal battle, but also perceptions of Kenya’s ability to protect international investors as it courts greater foreign capital into its strategic minerals sector.
