KCB ordered to file evidence in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s kin case
Customers at a KCB banking hall. The lender has been ordered to file evidence in an appeal it has filed against a High Court ruling that it manufactured statements of accounts of a company it advanced a loan to 27 years ago. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP
What you need to know:
- Muiri had only secured a Sh11.5 million facility for the loan advanced to Benjoh and Sh6 million had been paid to offset the loan.
- The court wondered how the interest of Sh3.4 million jumped to Sh44 million within eight months.
An appeals court has given a bank 21 days to file evidence in a case involving a loan it gave to a company tied to a relative of President Uhuru Kenyatta 27 years ago.
The High Court had held that KCB Group fabricated Benjoh Amalgamated Ltd's statements of accounts when it advanced the loan to finance a flower project in Nyandarua County in 1989.
Appeal judges Hannah Okwengu, Sankale ole Kantai and Fatuma Sichale also directed the company, which is associated with Mr Kenyatta’s kin Samuel Kung’u Muigai, to answer the KCB’s testimony within 21 days.
In addition, Muiri Coffee Estate, associated with Ngengi Muigai, another relative of President Kenyatta, was also directed to file submissions in the appeal.
Muiri is contesting the auctioning by KCB of its 434-acre tract of land under coffee for only Sh70 million, arguing that its value is over Sh700 million.
Muiri had only secured a Sh11.5 million facility for the loan advanced to Benjoh and Sh6 million had been paid to offset the loan.
QUESTIONS ABOUT INTEREST
The court was set to hear three appeals arising from the sale of Muiri Coffee Estate but failed because KCB lawyer Philip Nyachoti is bereaved.
The lender is asking the Court of Appeal to quash a ruling by a former High Court judge (the late Justice Joyce Khaminwa), who found that it “had manufactured the statement of accounts of the company”.
Benjoh says it did not know how much money was disbursed to suppliers of the flower project and how much cash was advanced to it.
Justice Khaminwa had ruled KCB manufactured Benjoh's accounts following an admission by a senior manager that it had no records for the company’s account.
The court wondered how the interest of Sh3.4 million jumped to Sh44 million within eight months.
BANK STATEMENTS 'LOST'
Benjoh has disputed the outstanding loan amount the bank demanded, saying it did not know how Sh70 million was arrived at as no proper statement of accounts was made available to it on request.
KCB had asked Justice Khaminwa to dismiss the case by the company seeking the accounts, saying the issue had been revisited in 18 previous cases.
Benjoh says the amount demanded by the bank between May 9, 1996 and May 9, 2006 was Sh143,844,249.59.
But the bank admitted before Justice Khaminwa that it was “not able to trace statements of its (Benjoh) account save for the period December 2003 and May 2006 as the files and bank statements got lost.”
Mr Muigai, the company’s managing director, there is a lot of confusion as the amounts demanded vary.
He said his company is entitled to a true statement of account and that the move by KCB to sell Muiri Coffee Estate’s 443 acres to Bidii Kenya Limited should be reversed.
