Barclays goes for arbitration in row with Kenyatta kin

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.

READ: Row between Kenyatta kin, Suraya heads for arbitration

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.

READ: Kenyatta kin wants firm to finalise deal

Mr Kenyatta, however, told the court that Suraya had not entirely met its end of the deal, which prompted him to consider other options.

The deal he had made with Suraya, he said, was entered into long after a deed of settlement had been entered into with Barclays Bank.

In his suit papers, he claims that the Barclays deal was signed in 2008, while the Suraya deal came in 2009.

Mr Kenyatta is the son of the late Peter Muigai Kenyatta, a brother of founding president Mzee Jomo Kenyatta.