Lawyer Nelson Havi for former Central Bank of Kenya Governor Nahashon Nyagah who is contesting for the withdrawal of cases against the Sh240 billion Tatu City project.
BY SAM ALFAN.
Former Central Bank of Kenya governor Nahashon Nyagah on Friday moved to court to contest the withdrawal of cases against the Sh240 billion Tatu City project.
Nyagah said the notice filed by other local investors led by Thika Coffee Mills tycoon Pius Ngugi and Anthony Njoroge should be struck out.
In a suit filed under a certificate of urgency by lawyer Nelson Havi, he said the withdrawal of the case is an abuse of the court process as there is an appeal pending at the Court of Appeal over the matter.
“The aforesaid application is yet to be heard and determined by the Court of Appeal. The court ordered stay of proceedings for 14 days pending the making of a formal application for stay by Tatu City operations officer Christopher Baron which the said period is yet to expire,” Nyagah said.
International shareholders in the project are Rendeavour chief executive officer Stephen Jennings, Frances Holliday, Hans Horn, Frank Mosier who have had a protracted dispute over the project with Nyagah and Bidco CEO Vimal Shah.
In withdrawing the suit last week, senior counsel Abdulaih Ahmednassir said Ngugi and Njoroge were no longer interested in the case against the investors.
“Take notice that the first and second applicants wholly withdraw all their claims against the respondents,” Ahmednassir said in the letter addressed to the Commercial Division of the High Court in Milimani, Nairobi.
The decision to withdraw the case is said to have been arrived at on September 16 after an Annual General Meeting in which it was reported that Nyagah has not invested any money in Tatu City Ltd.
The board also decided to drop lawyer Nelson Havi who has been representing Tatu City and appointed Ahmednassir as their lead counsel.
It was reported that Vimal only made a one-time investment of Sh30 million which represents less than 0.3 per cent of the project cost.
In the meantime, it was said that the international shareholders had invested more than Sh10 billion in the project hence no need of having the two.
“The actions of Tatu City Limited board, carried out in full accordance with corporate governance and Kenyan law, ensure that Nyagah and Vimal who have invested almost no money in the project, can no longer block the creation of tens of thousands of jobs and homes at 2,500-acre mixed-use and mixed-income development,” the minutes of the AGM said.
