Naks Yetu pulls down website amid contract row with developer

Nakuru-based digital platform Naks Yetu has pulled down its website following a contractual dispute with a developer who had been working on the project.

According to Moses Irungu, the co-founder of Naks Yetu, the developer had been referred to him by a friend when he was just starting out. 

They initially agreed that the work would cost Sh40,000 and Irungu even drew up a contract. However, the developer has yet to sign the contract. 

Furthermore, Irungu says, the developer was rarely available in person, which was a cause for concern.

"These are some of the red flags that I ignored at the start. Out of trust, I didn’t question it much. I just thought he was busy," admits Irungu.

Soon after, the developer began asking for money for personal expenses, saying he was short of cash. He would ask for between Sh1,000 and Sh5,000 assuring Irungu that he was still working on the website. 

Trusting him, Irungu sent the money, which eventually totalled to Sh23,400. Later, the developer claimed that he had under quoted the work and wanted to review the contract.

"This is when I started to question him. I asked him to at least send back the signed contract and show me what work he had done so far. Unfortunately, this did not work. Instead, he began to threaten us and, soon after, we discovered that the website was being auctioned,” Irungu says.

As a result, Naks Yetu decided to take legal action against the developer. However, they eventually took the website down. 

"We don't know whether he's doing this so he can blackmail us later. Since we have already lost a lot, we believe it is more prudent to start afresh with someone else than to continue living with uncertainty,” he says.