Lawyer wants Lufthansa officials queried in Sh1.2bn claim

A lawyer claiming Sh1.2 billion in legal fees from German airline LSG Lufthansa wants two of the carrier’s top officials compelled to answer questions regarding his role in helping the carrier secure a multibillion shilling Kenya Airports Authority (KAA) tender.

Eliab Muturi Mwangi wants the High Court to order LSG Lufthansa director Tobias Diebold and LSG Sky Chefs Kenya board member Paul Lyimo to respond to the questions.

Mr Muturi holds that the two are deliberately violating a court order compelling them to answer the questions.

Mr Muturi claims ownership of the contract agreement that LSG signed with KAA and its local partner, Apatana Investments, which is associated with billionaire businessman Matu Wamae.

The lawyer says Mr Diebold and Mr Lyimo had requested additional time to respond to the questions but instead filed objections to their interrogations. He adds that their responses to the questions could help determine the dispute.

“The indication by the defendants’ advocates to this court that they needed seven days to complete answers to the interrogatories are a clear indication that they had wilfully failed to comply with the order for Mr Diebold and Mr Lyimo to answer the interrogatories,” Mr Muturi says.

The two Lufthansa officials hold that the questions should have been directed to Lufthansa and LSG Sky Chefs Kenya, and not to them individually as they are not the parties that have been sued in the suit.

Sky Chefs chairman Ndung’u Gathinji has also denied the existence of a court order compelling the Lufthansa officials to respond to the questions.

He insists that Lufthansa has a right to decide which of its officials should respond to questions arising in the suit.

The Lufthansa and Apatana consortium— JV Partners — was selected to undertake the project estimated to be worth Sh2.25 billion ($26 million). The deal was signed in May last year.

Mr Wamae and Mr Gathinji last September said the project was expected to be complete at the end of this year or early next year.

The consortium will thereafter run the in-flight kitchen service at JKIA for 25 years before handing it over to KAA.

READ: Lufthansa to build JKIA inflight catering unit after delay

Following unsuccessful legal fees negotiations between Lufthansa, Mr Wamae, Mr Gathinji and Mr Muturi, the consortium opted to part ways with the lawyer, causing him to sue, seeking payment of the amount. Justice Francis Gikonyo will mention the matter on August 28.