CMC sued for allegedly selling defective buses

CMC Motors Group Limited has been sued by a transport company for allegedly selling buses with potential manufacturer defects.

Three plaintiffs are seeking a permanent injunction stopping CMC from selling the ‘MAN’ brand in the country unless the vehicles are certified by the relevant bodies to be free of similar manufacturer defects they have indicated in the suit.

The plaintiffs are Mr James Wanyoike, Steka Travellers Limited, Ms Rispre Mokeira Mokaya and Mr Joshua Nyakundi who are administrators of the estate of the late Paul Gwaro Nyakundi.

They moved to court under certificate of urgency claiming the brand has inherent manufacturer defects. They are represented by lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui.

“The plaintiffs aver that they are engaged in long distance fare-paying passenger transport business and have in the past procured the requisite licensing to operate their PSV long distance buses within Kenya which were previously successfully executed by means of other models of buses,” the lawyer said.

He said in 2013, the plaintiff desired to upgrade their fleet of buses and went to the CMC showroom in Nairobi where they were prevailed upon to purchase the MAN brand, presumably as a superior brand suited for long distance PSV business.

“This brand was represented to be the MAN brand which had previously not been on offer for sale in Kenya,” Mr Kinyanjui said.

“The plaintiffs aver that the MAN buses sold to them had manufactures defects and were inherently defective and no physical inspection or examination of the buses would have revealed these inherent defects as the said buses suffered manufacturing defects to the engine and mechanical performance during the subsistence of the warranty period,” the lawyer said.

The defects allegedly rendered the buses unable to perform as PSV buses and the plaintiffs claim the sale was unethical, misleading and unfair.

“The warranty seriously departed from the intended engine and mechanical design of such PSV buses amounting to manufacture defects and turned out to be more dangerous than the plaintiffs consumers had expected them to be.

"While marketing and pitching for the sale of the MAN buses, the defendant misrepresented that MAN was superior,” the plaintiffs stated.

They accuse CMC of failing to warn consumers about potential risks posed by the MAN buses due to the manufactures engine defects.