Corporate News
A Barclays Bank branch on Muindi Mbigu Street in Nairobi. The bank has
agreed to go for arbitration to settle a Sh565 million dispute involving
a member of the Kenyatta family and real estate developers, Suraya
Property Group. PHOTO | SALATON NJAU |
NATION MEDIA GROUP
By BRIAN WASUNA, bwasuna@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Barclays Bank has agreed to go for arbitration to settle a Sh565 million dispute involving a member of the Kenyatta family and real estate developers, Suraya Property Group.
- Mr Kenyatta and Suraya have agreed to appoint an arbitrator who will help the two parties settle the dispute out-of-court.
- Mr Kenyatta is the son of the late Peter Muigai Kenyatta, a brother of founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.
Barclays Bank
has agreed to go for arbitration to settle a Sh565 million dispute
involving a member of the Kenyatta family and real estate developers,
Suraya Property Group.
Michael Muigai Kenyatta and Barclays Bank have since 2008
been involved in a dispute over a 242-acre piece of land, part of which
he wants to sell to settle the bank’s debt.
The proposed sale of 44 acres of the land forced
Suraya Property Group to join the suit as an interested party, arguing
that it also had a deal with Mr Kenyatta to develop the land jointly
with the latter’s Njomaitha Investments.
Mr Kenyatta and Suraya have agreed to appoint an arbitrator who will help the two parties settle the dispute out-of-court.
Lady Justice Jacqueline Kamau ordered that Mr
Kenyatta and the property developer return on October 22 to update the
court on the appointed arbitrator, or an agreement if they will have
reached one by then.
“The consent recorded is hereby endorsed and
adopted as an order of this court. Mention will be on October 22 with a
view of recording a consent on the appointment of an arbitrator or
settlement of the entire matter,” said Justice Kamau.
She will give the parties further direction on how much time they will have to settle the matter out of court.
Mr Kenyatta had in June last year opposed a 2012
application by Suraya to appoint an arbitrator to settle the dispute,
and had filed an objection on the same.
He, on that occasion, said there was no matter to
be settled by an arbitrator and that Suraya’s application was an abuse
of the court process.
Through his lawyer Neslon Havi, Mr Kenyatta has now
agreed to strike out his objection to the application, and to use an
arbitrator rather than settle the matter in court.
Suraya claimed the development was to see the
construction of a gated community with 279 town houses, 472 apartments, a
shopping mall and other infrastructure, all of which were to stand on
the disputed land.
Mr Kenyatta and Suraya were to form Oak Tree Golf
Properties, a joint venture that was to oversee completion of the Sh700
million project in Juja, Suraya claimed.
It added that the two parties were to raise money
to pay off the bank loan for the joint venture through proceeds of the
sale of houses.
Njoroge Regeru, Suraya’s advocate, said that his
client later discovered that Mr Kenyatta and Barclays were in talks to
sell the land to British American Investment Company for Sh700 million, yet he had already deposited Sh70 million to pursue the earlier agreed upon project.
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