More than 5,000 farmers across central Kenya have lost millions after investing in medicinal crops promoted by the Salushi Empowerment Organisation, which promised high returns but failed to deliver payments.
For months, farmers across central Kenya believed they had struck gold.
A new medicinal crop introduced by the Salushi Empowerment Organisation—a company dealing with holistic and alternative medicine—promised life-changing profits.
But as the harvest season arrived, so did the harsh reality: the money never came.
Over 5,000 farmers across Murang’a, Kirinyaga, Embu, Nyeri, Kiambu, and Laikipia had invested in the wild medicinal crop.
Part of the farmers' agreement with the Salushi Empowerment Organisation. The Nairobi-based initiative had shut down months earlier, leaving them with losses after selling medicinal herb seeds without a market for their harvest.
By the time the farmers realized they had been conned, they had incurred losses amounting to millions of shillings in investment.
A Nation investigation has uncovered the covert dealings of the Salushi Empowerment Organisation (SEO Group), which operates within a network of three companies—Salushi Nutritional Health and Wellness Clinic, Lushi Luxury Fabric, and SEO TV.
Farmers display contracts with the Salushi Empowerment Organization at Gathuthi, Nyeri County, on February 20, 2025.
However, little public information is available about its operations, as the businesses lack websites, and farmers are recruited primarily through social media or referrals.
Ernest Gathuri, one of the first farmers to invest, recalls how the company entered Murang’a with the backing of the local chief in Iyego Location.
“With that kind of introduction, we never imagined they could con us,” he says.
In a meeting attended by over 50 farmers, Salushi representatives claimed their crop would yield more profits than coffee, the region’s main cash crop.
Gathuri purchased 50 seedlings of Rumex crispus—a weed commonly found in damp, non-acidic soils along riverbeds—at Sh400 each, hoping to reap big.
Rumex herb in a farm at Gathuthi village in Nyeri county on February 20, 2025.
After three months, he received his first payment of Sh113,000, with a kilogram of Rumex roots fetching Sh1,500.
The deal, it seemed, was too sweet to resist.
James Kiboi during an interview in Gathuthi village, Nyeri County, on February 20, 2025. He said he had received Sh240,000 from a bank to start growing medicinal herbs.
But what he did not know was that the money was the first and last he would receive and that he was being used as bait to recruit more farmers into the scam.
“The company asked me to refer interested friends and even took me along with them to Kirinyaga to teach farmers about the plant’s profitability,” he says.
Motivated by the promise of high returns, he expanded his farm and invested in another herbal crop from the company—Ashwagandha, a medicinal herb commonly used in traditional medicine.
By this time, the organisation had increased the buying price of Rumex seedlings from Sh400 to Sh2,000 each.
From this, he was told that he would sell the roots to the company at Sh10,000 per kilogram.
Part of the farmers' agreement with the Salushi Empowerment Organisation.
However, the roots failed to develop properly, yielding far less than expected.
Each plant was supposed to produce 150 grams of roots, but its harvest was minimal.
The Ashwagandha seedlings, which he had purchased at Sh4,000 each with the promise that each leaf would be bought at Sh100, were never purchased.
Mr Gathuri estimates his total losses to be in excess of Sh600,000.
He disclosed that by the end of 2024, each farmer contracted by Salushi was required to recruit at least three new members.
While the company aggressively sought new recruits, many older farmers exited the program, citing frustrations over delayed payments.
“When we asked for our dues, the company management always had an excuse,” he said.
“Dr Lucy Wanjiru (of Salushi) started avoiding payments by claiming we had mixed our produce with wild plants, which she said violated our contracts.”
Further investigations revealed that Dr Wanjiru never personally signed contracts.
Farmers gather outside the closed offices of the Salushi Empowerment Organisation in Ihithe, Nyeri County, on February 20, 2025.
Instead, they were stamped by the office and signed by the General Manager—a position that frequently changed hands.
“The strange thing was that none of these managers stayed long—some left within a week,” an employee disclosed, speaking anonymously for fear of reprisals.
The employee also highlighted a pattern of secrecy, including frequent office relocations in Nairobi.
“In the past year, we have moved from Njiru to Membley, and now we’re in Kahawa Sukari estates. We always move at night, like we’re running from something,” he added.
Initially, farmers deposited payments into an Equity Bank account under the name Ndung’u Muniu, listed as the director of Salushi Empowerment Organisation.
Farmers who had supplied herbs to the Salushi Empowerment Organisation gathered at its closed offices in Ihithe, Nyeri County, on February 20, 2025.
However, a few months later, they were instructed to send payments to a different account under Salushi Nutritional Health and Wellness Clinic.
A former field officer recalled that Mr Ndung’u was introduced as Dr Wanjiru’s husband and the organisation’s director before he was reportedly relocated to Ontario, Canada, to oversee exports and address farmers’ concerns.
Yet, when contacted, Mr Ndung’u denied ever working for the company—despite his name appearing as the director in a promotional magazine dated March 8, 2024.
Another employee, Mr Kennedy Chomba, whom farmers said was the current general manager, claimed to have left the company.
However, farmers insisted that as recently as this week, he was still in communication with them.
On Monday, March 3, 2025, Mr Chomba allegedly called a group of farmers in Mathira, requesting a list of those awaiting payments.
“This is not the first time,” a farmer said. “Last month, he asked farmers in Murang’a for the same, but nothing happened.”
The operations of the company have attracted the interest of the police, with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) in Nyeri saying a probe had been launched after eight farmers filed complaints.
Nyeri County Criminal Investigations Officer Luka Tumbo confirmed that detectives had asked affected farmers to provide M-Pesa statements before recording official complaints to enable them to complete investigations.
However, no complaints have been filed in other counties where Salushi operates.
Regional DCI boss Abraham Mugambi stated that no reports had been received from farmers in Kiambu, Murang’a, Nyandarua, Meru, Kirinyaga, or Embu.
Meanwhile, farmers who were conned out of their hard-earned cash continue to seek redress in what appears to be an unending web of deceit.
The farmers recounted to Nation how they were deceived into growing a crop that promised them handsome returns, only to be left with produce in their farms after incurring huge costs.
Mr Francis Karoki in Kirinyaga had a similar experience.
The horticulture farmer from Kerugoya town came across the organisation through a Facebook post in 2023.
He and two others pooled a loan of Sh630,000, buying seedlings worth Sh210,000 each.
“The prices were so enticing. I bought each plant for Sh2,000 and planted them on an eighth of an acre,” he says. “It seemed like a great deal because the crops did not take up much space on my farm.”
When the time came to sell, communication from the organisation turned sporadic. Phone calls went unanswered.
By then, Karoki says the organisation had leveraged his influence, with over 100 farmers in his area investing in the crop.
“But then it later became increasingly difficult to get the company to attend our local meetings, especially when farmers started raising concerns that their crops were ready for harvest, yet the organisation had not bought their produce,” he says.
Farmers at one of the farms where rumex is grown in Gathuthi village, Nyeri County, February 20, 2025.
Now, he estimates his losses at nearly Sh1 million, factoring in labour, manure, and water costs—each Rumex plant required about 40 litres of water daily.
In Nyeri, Mary Kinyua says she was attracted by the profits, took a loan, and invested Sh64,000, expecting to make over Sh500,000.
But as the months went by and her calls to the company remained unanswered, excitement turned into anxiety.
“Every time I think about it, I end up in the hospital. The stress has made me sick. If only I had stuck to my berries—at least those sell,” she says.
Mary Kinyua, one of the rumex farmers, explains how she was lured into the business after attending a meeting of the Salushi Empowerment Organisation at the Mukarara Trading Centre in Nyeri County.
Beyond Rumex and Ashwagandha, the company also sold inoculated crops such as Lowenzang and Virgin plants, each seedling priced at Sh3,000.
Farmers were required to register with a fee of Sh400 through a bank account. However, they could only receive seedlings after making full payment.
The Nation reached out to Dr Lucy Wanjiru for a response to the allegations.
Despite multiple calls and messages on WhatsApp that indicated they had been delivered, Dr Wanjiru did not respond.
At one point, she picked up a call from this writer but, after the introduction, disconnected the call.
