Retired President Mwai Kibaki Regains Control of Multi-Million Shilling Company

Retired President Mwai Kibaki has regained the control of a multi-million shilling company established in the 1970s.

Kibaki and seven other directors had been stripped off the powers to manage Mathingira Wholesalers Company Ltd in 2016, after the Environment and Lands Court sitting in Nyeri ruled in favor of new directors who had taken over the firm.

The Courts of Appeal on Wednesday reversed the decision by Lady Justice Lucy Waithaka dated July 12th, 2016. Kibaki and the seven had moved to the Appellate Court to contest the ruling.

A three-judge bench consisting of Justices Agnes Murgor, Fatuma Sichale and Sankale Ole Kantai ruled that the lower court granted 'strangers and imposters’ the authority to manage the firm without the consent of the original owners.

“We are satisfied the court adopted the wrong position. The suit property belongs to the list of proprietors declared by a certificate of lease issued in 1976 and renewed in 2012,” said the judges.

The Appeals court noted that the lands court decision had set a bad precedence on matters of governing properties and transferring of shares.

Further, the appellate court ruled that Kibaki and co were the directors of the firm and had never transferred their shares as provided by the Company Articles and Memorandum of Association.

“The new members who acquired the shares later were not aware of the procedures. They did not acquire rights as the suit property was not passed from the original owners,” said the judges.

The dispute began after a disagreement on its management when a new chairman was appointed into office in October 2007 to replace Mr Kanyungu.

While poking holes to the lands court ruling, Kibaki termed the new directors as 'court imposed trusts.'

“It is difficult to understand what the lands court had in mind while giving them rights to manage and control the property in total disregard of the law,” said Mr Kibaki in his appeal.

The matter had been in court since 2008.