BY SAM ALFAN.
East African Breweries Ltd (EABL) wants an application seeking to commit its officials to jail for contempt of court suspended, until a review at the country’s apex court is determined.
Appearing before judge Hedwig Ong’udi on Wednesday, EABL said there is real danger that its officials might be imprisoned, since Bia Tosha was pressing on with contempt proceedings.
The beer maker said the applications Bia Tosha are intended to pre-empt the outcome of the review application pending before the Supreme Court and to defeat any decision that the Supreme Court might make pursuant to the said application.
The Supreme Court remitted the case back to the High Court in Bebruary, for the hearing of the contempt of court application EABL officials including CEO Jane Karuku.
In the judgment on February 17, the top court found KBL and UDV (Kenya) Ltd in contempt of High Court orders for terminating the distributorship agreement with Bia Tosha.
He bench comprising Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and Justices Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u, Isaac Lenaola and William Ouko directed the High court to proceed to assess the suitable punishment arising out of the contempt application by Bia Tosha.
The Beer distributor which had been appointed as the sole distributor for KBL liquor products for various routes within the country.
However in 2016 after KBL and EABL repossessed 22 routes and reallocated them to other distributors and refused to refund the goodwill for the repossessed routes.
Other than Karuku, Bia Tosha has named Andrew Cowan and Andrew Kilonzo in the court papers.
“If the orders are granted and executed the same cannot be reversed even if the applicants succeed in the Supreme Court, meaning that they will suffer prejudice if the orders are granted,” argued the Directors through their lawyer Njoroge Regeru in court documents.
It is their case that the Supreme court case seeks among other things to stay the contempt proceedings before the High Court.
The case will be mentioned on Friday for directions.
