Diaspora · 28 Oct 2026 · 6 min

Building in Kenya from abroad without being sent fake photos

The safeguards we put in every diaspora contract, and the questions to ask any builder before you send a deposit.

Almost every client who calls us from the USA, Germany or Australia has heard the same story: money sent home for a house, photos sent back, and a site that turned out to be months behind or never started. The fix is not trusting harder. It is building a process where trust is not required.

Pay against work, never ahead of it

Your contract should tie every payment to a stage that has been completed on site and valued against the bill of quantities. Keep a retention, usually around 10%, until the defects period ends.

Ask for evidence you can date

Weekly video walk-throughs with the date and site visible, live calls where you can ask the project manager to point the camera, and a written report that matches the BoQ line by line.

Check the paperwork

Ask for the contractor’s National Construction Authority registration, approved drawings and the names of the architect and quantity surveyor. If you are financing through a Kenyan bank’s diaspora construction loan, the bank will ask for most of these anyway.

One person accountable

Projects go wrong in the gaps between trades. One project manager responsible for every trade means one person answers your call.

We built Goldie Interiors around these rules. If you would like the full checklist, the free build guide below covers all nine checks.