NAIROBI, Kenya, May 21, 2025 – The Freemasons Society has filed a lawsuit against Nairobi County Government, seeking compensation for damages following the closure of their hall in a dispute over Sh19 million in allegedly unpaid land rates.
In proceedings before High Court Judge Bahati Mwamuye, the society accuses Governor Johnson Sakaja’s administration of unlawfully encroaching on their Nyerere Road property despite an existing exemption from land rates.
Court documents filed by Rachier and Amollo Advocates detail how county officials forcibly entered the premises on May 14, demolished a gate, and posted a notice claiming ownership over unpaid rates.
The Freemasons called these actions “illegal and a violation of their constitutional rights.”
“The respondent, acting through its agents, unlawfully entered the petitioner’s property, used excessive force, and caused damage,” the court papers state.
The Masonic Trustees argue that as a registered philanthropic organization, they were granted exemption from land rates through Legal Notices 389 and 390 of 1990 – exemptions they maintain remain valid and have never been revoked.
According to their filing, Nairobi County had previously acknowledged this exemption and withdrawn similar notices in past incidents.
The society contends that the county’s conduct breaches Article 47 of the Constitution, which guarantees fair administrative action and requires public bodies to honor their prior decisions.
The Freemasons are seeking a court declaration that the county cannot demand rates it had previously waived, compensation for rights violations, and reimbursement of legal costs.
Justice Mwamuye has scheduled a hearing for May 29, 2025.
In the heart of Nairobi, on the quiet stretch of Nyerere Road, stands a building shrouded in whispers. Its colonial facade, modestly dignified, bears the weight of over a century of secrecy and symbolism.
This is the Freemasons’ Hall, a landmark often overlooked, yet central to one of Kenya’s most persistent cultural enigmas.
In May 14th, the veil was momentarily lifted when Nairobi County officials raided the premises and closed it over a Ksh.19 million land rate debt.
The operation, led by Health CEC Susan Silantoi, wasn’t unusual in administrative terms, it was part of a broader county-wide crackdown on revenue defaulters.
Yet the backlash online was immediate and electric, not because of unpaid dues, but because of who had been targeted: the Freemasons.
To many Kenyans, Freemasonry evokes a potent mix of fear, fascination, and folklore.
Long rumored to be a cabal of the wealthy and powerful, the organization is often accused without evidence of devil worship, secretive dealings, and supernatural acquisition of wealth.
But what lies beyond the conspiracy theories?
From European Fraternity to African Chapter
Freemasonry’s history in East Africa begins in colonial Zanzibar in 1905, where British settlers first introduced it. In those early days, membership was strictly reserved for Europeans.
Even as late as the 1930s, only a handful of lodges admitted Asians, and even fewer welcomed Africans, an institution that mirrored the racial exclusions of empire.
The landscape began to change in the mid-20th century.
A pivotal figure was Tanzanian businessman Sir Jayantilal Keshavji Chande, who joined the fraternity in 1954 after a two-year wait.
Over decades, he rose to become District Grand Master of East Africa, overseeing lodges in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and the Seychelles.
In his writings, particularly “Whither Directing Your Course,” Chande argued passionately for the craft’s moral foundation: “Freemasonry admits a good man with a view to making him better.”
Contrary to popular belief, Freemasonry is not a religion—nor does it aim to replace one.
Members must profess belief in a Supreme Being, and lodges often contain the King James Bible, the Quran, the Bhagavad Gita, or other holy texts depending on the region. The philosophy, rooted in Enlightenment ideals, emphasizes brotherly love, relief, and truth.
Inside the Lodge: An Insider’s Account
Nairobi-based lawyer and Gor Mahia Football Club chairman Ambrose Rachier during a past interview at his office in February 2020. Mr Rachier says Freemasons have their own ceremonies; just like weddings or cultural functions like circumcisions, where there are certain rituals that they cannot talk about publicly.
Prominent Nairobi lawyer Ambrose Rachier, who has been a Freemason since 1994, offers a rare glimpse into this secretive world. “Our main objective is to engage in charity to help humanity,” Rachier explains.
“But in the process, we ensure that our intellectual faculties are all the time interrogated, and we also have what you can call companionship or fellowship through dinners and so forth.”
The society operates through a structured hierarchy of degrees, beginning with apprentice, then craft person, and finally master.
Beyond these initial three degrees lies a path to the 33rd degree symbolically significant as the age at which Jesus was crucified.
Rachier himself has reached the 30th degree after nearly three decades of membership.
According to Rachier, joining requires sponsorship from existing members. “It is a member’s organization in which someone who knows you very well invites you to join,” he says.
Prospective members undergo interviews and a vetting process to ensure they meet the fraternity’s standards of honor and charity.
“We are trying to build a group of people with the same interests… You need to be a good person.”
Meetings typically commence at 6 p.m. to accommodate working schedules and conclude by 9 p.m. with dinner at the Freemasons’ Hall.
Members dress in formal attire, including an apron that symbolizes building, a nod to the craft’s historical roots in stonemasonry. “We just wear a suit and some kind of apron to symbolize building, because when you go to build, you wear an apron,” Rachier explains.
The Mask of Mystery
Secrecy remains central to Freemasonry’s identity. From elaborate initiation rituals to the use of symbols like the square and compass, the fraternity guards its traditions with near-religious zeal.
And in Kenya, where religious and cultural interpretations often collide with colonial legacies, this secrecy breeds suspicion.
When asked about certain rituals, Rachier demurs: “I am not allowed to talk about it.”
He acknowledges the fraternity’s ceremonial aspects but insists they’re no different from religious or cultural observances.
“We have our own ceremonies, just like weddings or cultural functions like circumcisions, where there are certain rituals that we cannot talk about publicly.”
The mythos surrounding Freemasonry in Kenya intensified in the early 1990s during a moral panic over “devil worship.”
President Daniel arap Moi ordered an official commission of inquiry in 1994 to investigate alleged satanic practices infiltrating churches, schools, and allegedly Masonic lodges.
The commission’s report, largely withheld from the public, deepened the air of mistrust.
“We ushered them in and took them around and urged them to ask questions,” Rachier recalls of the commission’s visit to the Freemasons’ Hall.
“I think that was a good thing to open up for the world to see what Freemasons do and what they stand for.”
Debunking the Myths
Among the most persistent rumors is that Freemasonry involves human sacrifice for wealth and power.
Rachier vehemently denies this: “In the 28 years I have been a member, I have never seen a sacrifice. I have not seen anyone who has sacrificed anybody.”
Rather than requiring members to sacrifice family, Rachier claims to have introduced about 20 of his own family members and close associates to the fraternity.
“I have a son who is 43 years old and practices law with me in my firm here. I have other children, and I have suffered no death,” he says, countering the narrative that membership demands sacrificing loved ones.
He also dismisses the notion that Freemasonry is exclusively for the wealthy and powerful, “we join Freemasonry to propagate charity. There are a few wealthy people in Freemasonry, and there are those people who live ordinary lives like me. I am not a wealthy person, and I am not a powerful person.”
The organization has traditionally been male-only, though Rachier acknowledges that women’s lodges have emerged in the United States.
He compares this gender exclusion to historical practices in religious institutions, “just ask yourself, in Catholicism, the priesthood, for a long time, has been a preserve of men… These are things that as men, we need to address.”
Freemasonry’s global membership has steadily declined since the 1980s, including in Africa.
Younger generations, increasingly secular and skeptical, often see the fraternity as outdated.
But paradoxically, in Kenya, public curiosity has reached new heights.
Social media platforms fuel perceptions of Freemasonry as a shadowy power structure accessible only to elites.
This phenomenon may be partly psychological. In a society where inequality and corruption often dominate headlines, the idea of a secret society pulling the strings offers both a convenient explanation and a compelling narrative.
Freemasons continue to assert that the craft focuses on self-improvement and moral guidance not monetary enrichment.
“If you get to the Masonic Hall, the first thing you get is a citation of King Solomon to God saying, ‘I shall build you a house and you shall establish your throne forever,’” explains Rachier.
“In reference to building a temple for God, nothing could be further from satanic than that.”
The fraternity maintains lodges across East Africa, with branches in Mombasa, Kisumu, and Ruiru within Kenya, as well as in Tanzania, Uganda, and Seychelles.
Members regularly travel between these lodges for what they describe as brotherhood and charitable work.
A Building, a Symbol, a Mirror
The Freemasons’ Hall in Nairobi.
The Freemasons’ Hall in Nairobi remains a silent witness to this ongoing tension between myth and reality.
Its colonial walls have seen Kenya through independence, political transformation, and cultural upheaval.
Today, as county revenue officers place chains on its gates, the building has once again become a mirror reflecting not just the fate of a debt-ridden organization, but the country’s deeper anxieties about power, secrecy, and truth.
Whether viewed as an exclusive gentleman’s club, a philanthropic network, or something more sinister, Freemasonry in Kenya resists easy categorization.
It is a story still unfolding, hidden in plain sight, yet now with voices like Rachier’s offering unprecedented insight into a world that has been, until recently, closed to public scrutiny.
“I am not scared to say I am one of them, and it is something I don’t regret joining,” Rachier concludes.
His candor marks a new chapter in the relationship between this ancient fraternity and a skeptical public, one that may gradually transform whispers into understanding, even as the rituals behind those colonial walls remain closely guarded.
Gor Mahia FC Chairman and self declared Freemason lawyer Ambrose Rachier is at the edge of being declared bankrupt by Nairobi High Court following a bunch of suits filed against him by his creditors in July 22, 2022.
A Gazette Notice seen by Kenya Insights dated February 28th, 2024, in regards to the Commercial and Tax Division Insolvency Petition filed against Mr Rachier was publicized as it called on any other proposers and opposes of the petition against Mr Rachier to come forward as well.
“Any creditor or contributor of the above named desirous to support or oppose the making of an insolvency order in the said petition may appear before the High Court in Nairobi in person or by an authorized advocate on the 11th March 2024 when the matter shall be mentioned,” read the Notice.
The gazette notice.
According to the Constitution of Kenya, The Insolvency Act No 18 of 2015, Division 2, Section 17, a creditor may apply for bankruptcy order in respect of debtor in relation to a debt or debts owed by the debtor to the creditor or creditors.
The application may be made if at the time of the application: the amount of the debt or the aggregate of the debts is equal to or exceeds the prescribed bankruptcy level, the debt is for a liquidated amount payable to the applicant creditor/s either immediately or at some certain, future time, and is unsecured; the debt is a debt that the debtor appears either to be unable to pay or to have no reasonable prospect of being able to pay and there is no outstanding application to set aside a statutory demand in respect of the debt or any of the debts.
The Gazette Notice did not provide the nature of Mr Rachier’s debts, but simply provided the petitioner’s advocates information.
This petition against Mr Rachier comes a year after he signed a Sh 5 billion deal in the Mayfair Bank sale to Egypt’s Commercial International Bank (CIB).
According to a January 2023 report by the Business Daily, Mr Rachier was one of 32 investors who agreed to sell their combined 49% stake in the bank to CIB at $40 million (Sh 4.98 billion at the time). Mr Rachier had a direct stake equivalent of 0.98%.
Another top name among the investors is politician Peter Kenneth who is the founder of Mayfair Group who teamed up with other investors to establish the bank.
Freemason
The son of former Reverend Caon Hazron Rachier, Ambrose- a self confessed Free Mason- had a bout of success with the Kenya Premier League side club since taking over in 2008 but over the past few years, the club has been facing financial problems including paying off salaries and fines after bitterly parting ways with staff.
The lawyer, who has risen through the ranks to become a senior officer in freemasonry, disclosed in an interview that at the time of his introduction to the secret organisation, his friends talked him through, after that, he underwent an interview, got accepted and initiated.
“I was introduced to freemasonry by two friends in 1994. They talked me through it; I got interviewed, accepted, got initiated and I’ve since grown to be a senior officer,” he narrated.
In the interview, Rachier maintained that he does not regret ever joining the secret group revealing that the secret group features notable dignitaries such as the chief justices of Kenya.
He further disclosed that the members of the cult are not allowed to divulge any secrets to people on different levels in the organisation or non-members.
Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that unites men of good character who, though of different religious, ethnic or social backgrounds, share a belief in the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of mankind.
Sh177M Debt
This won’t be the first time the lawyer is battling financial woes. In 2020, Development Bank of Kenya took him to court and wanted to attach his family’s 150-acre piece of land in Kajiado over a disputed Sh177 million loan.
Development Bank sued Mr Rachier and his four partners at the Rachier & Amollo Advocates- Otiende Amollo, Jotham Arwa, Francis Olalo and Stephen Ligunya claiming that the law firm had refused to settle overdraft facilities.
The lender also enjoined Marenyo Limited a firm owned by Mr Rachier and his sons Alvin and John. The piece of land that risks being sold is registered to Marenyo.
Rachier & Amollo Advocates then counter-sued, denying ever requesting for overdraft facilities and accusing the lender of allowing unauthorised access to the law firm’s accounts that have led to the Sh177 million debt.
The lender said that the overdrafts were guaranteed by a fixed deposit account held by Rachier & Amollo advocates, alongside a title deed for the 150-acre land. Development Bank says Marenyo has in court tried to draw attention away from the connection between its directors and Rachier & Amollo Advocates.
It argued that Marenyo director Alvin Samuel Oketch conveniently omitted his surname Rachier in affidavits sworn on behalf of the company as part of the plot.
But Marenyo filed an application within Development Bank’s suit, claiming that it did not guarantee the overdraft facilities, hence not liable for any debt claimed by the lender.
Development Bank granted the overdrafts on the strength of letters signed by the law firm’s founder, Mr Rachier.
Rachier & Amollo Advocates, however, said its contract with the lender only allowed decisions involving its accounts at Development Bank to be made through letters signed by at least two signatories.
The law firm said its bank account should have a Sh89 million deposit, and not a Sh177 million debt.
“It is therefore annoying for the plaintiff to keep presenting to this court letters allegedly signed by Mr Rachier alone, attributing to Rachier & Amollo or to the defendants the communications contained therein purporting to treat the same as lawful instructions given by or on behalf of Rachier & Amollo, or the defendants,” Stephen Ligunya, a partner at the firm said.
The overdrafts dated back to 2013 when the bank allegedly received a letter from Mr Rachier, which also requested that the loan be secured by the Kajiado land.
Two years later, Rachier & Amollo’s account at the bank received Sh22.8 million from Kitui County Government’s Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) account. The money was quickly withdrawn in cash.
The CBK then informed Development Bank that the money had been stolen from Kitui County. The lender then relayed the information to Mr Rachier, who allegedly promised to provide evidence that the law firm was entitled to the money. But he did not furnish Development Bank with evidence.
The Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission obtained court orders freezing Rachier & Amollo’s accounts.
