Former Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor, Nahason Nyagah with his sister Jane Wambui Gacoka leaving Milimani law Courts building(FILE PHOTO).
BY SAM ALFAN.
Former Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) Governor, Nahason Nyagah, has suffered a major blow after losing a bid to block two foreign investors in the controversial Sh240billion Tatu City project from defaming him.
Justice Mbogholi threw out Nyagah’s application for injunction on the basis that the acrimonious fall-out between the foreign and local partners over ownership and capital investments in relation to properties belonging to Tatu City and Kofinaf Ltd could not be properly adjudicated in a piece-meal manner.
Nyagah had asserted that Stephen Armstrong Jennings and Preston Mendenhall had engineered a smear campaign by falsely and maliciously accusing him of fraud, forgery and corruption in the transfer of more than 2,000 acres of rich farmland worth Sh5.3billion in Kiambu County.
The International investors claim their Kenyan minority shareholders had attempted to alienate and sell the land to third parties-through Purple Saturn Properties Ltd-in a deliberate attempt to swindle them before the ownership dispute is heard and concluded. They have already secured conservatory orders preserving the disputed properties.
The Judge said Jennings and Mendenhall, who are represented by Senior Counsel Ahmednassir Abdullahi, had pleaded justification and the court could not issue an interlocutory injunction upon Nyagah’s untested affidavit evidence.
“Moreover, the freedoms of opinion, expression and the media under Articles 32, 33 and 34 of the Constitution are fundamental rights, and although they are not absolute, they will not be lightly curtailed,” Justice Mbogholi observed.
“At this preliminary stage, I do not find any justification for issuing the interim injunction sought and I decline to do so. Nyagah has not demonstrated a prima facie case with a probability of success. The notice of motion dated September 14, 2015 is hereby dismissed with costs,” the Judge ruled.
