Safaricom roped into contractors’ Sh180m dispute

Leebarn Builders wants to recover the Sh180 million which it claims was its rightful payment upon completion of works. PHOTO | FILE 

By BRIAN WASUNA

In Summary

• Leebarn Builders has sued Safaricom to stop the telco from making payments for the works to Linksoft Communications Systems, which was the original contractor hired to expand the Thika data centre.

Mobile phone service provider Safaricom has been dragged into a Sh180 million dispute between two contractors who it hired to expand a data centre in Thika town.

Leebarn Builders, a sub-contractor, has sued Safaricom to stop the telco from making payments for the works to Linksoft Communications Systems, which was the original contractor hired to expand the Thika data centre.

The sub-contractor wants to recover the Sh180 million which it claims was its rightful payment upon completion of works.

The sub-contractor claims that it clashed with Linksoft over delayed payments and retention of funds meant for it, and that the two firms were unable to agree on the range of each party’s rights and responsibilities as per the deal signed.

But Linksoft says Leebarn failed to complete the works before the agreed upon April 2015 deadline and abandoned the project in May last year, forcing it to continue the project to completion.

“During the performance of the contracted works a dispute arose between Leebarn and Linksoft on account of Linksoft’s delays in making payments to Leebarn, and also Linksoft’s unjust decision to retain a substantial portion of the monies owed to Leebarn,” the subcontractor says in court documents.

Linksoft holds that Leebarn has already received Sh132 million from Safaricom. But Leebarn says Linksoft is withholding payments made by the telco intended for its works on the data centre.

Leebarn has asked the court to stop Safaricom from remitting any more funds to Leebarn until the disputes over the project have been resolved by an arbitrator.