Former President Kibaki obtains orders freezing operations of disputed firm
Former President Mwai Kibaki speaks at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on November 7, 2015. The former President has obtained an order freezing operations of a firm whose control he and other shareholders have been fighting over since 2007. PHOTO | JAMES EKWAM | NATION MEDIA GROUP
Former President Mwai Kibaki has obtained an order freezing the operations of a firm whose control he and other shareholders have been fighting over since 2007.
Justice Lucy Waithaka of the Nyeri Environment and Land Court on Tuesday ordered that the operations and management of Mathingira Limited should wait, pending the verdict of the Court of Appeal.
“The applicants filed a stay of execution of an earlier judgement delivered by this court... their prayers are allowed and the other directors of the company are supposed to wait and abide by the outcome of the Court of Appeal,” ruled Justice Waithaka.
Ms Waithaka noted that Mr Kibaki and Kimwatu Kinyungu had argued that they will suffer substantial loss because they will lose the suit property and revenue generated by it to unlawful shareholders of the company.
Through lawyer Kamau Kuria and Co advocates, Mr Kibaki and Mr Kinyungu had sued seeking orders of a stay of a judgement delivered on July 12.
LOST BID
This was after he and five other directors lost a bid to take control of the company exclusively.
Two directors have since abandoned that claim while two others died when the case was still pending in court.
In her judgement, Justice Waithaka declared both the original and the newly incorporated members as legal directors of the company.
Justice Waithaka had also ordered all the directors to hold a meeting within three months and elect a new management to run the operations of the company.
She has also given the new board officials to be elected power to access the money collected by the company on behalf of the company and other directors.
The company, Mathingira Wholesalers Ltd, was originally bought by Mr Kibaki and his five childhood friends in the 1970s and incorporated as a company in 1983.
The initial directors of the company also became directors of the company.
But with time, some of the directors sold off their shares, incorporating other new directors, some of whom are sons and relatives of the original directors.
