Sasini MD fights ouster in Murang’a tea factory board

The High Court in Milimani, Nairobi, will Wednesday start hearing a case in which the managing director of listed firm, Sasini Tea #ticker:SASN is seeking to remain on the board of a factory under KTDA.

Stephen Maina Githiga, the Group MD of Sasini, is challenging his suspension as director of Kiru Tea Factory Company Ltd, where he joined the board on January 11, 2016.

Kiru suspended him on grounds that he was now working for Sasini and that his position as a director of the Muranga-based tea factory will be a conflict of interest because the two firms are rivals.

Mr Githiga was appointed as Group MD of Sasini, a multinational tea company, on January 1 this year.

Before his appointment, he was serving as an elected director of Kiru Tea Factory, which is under the Kenya Tea Development Authority.

Mr Githiga says he was elected for a second term as a Kiru factory director in January 2016, implying that he had served for less than half of his term when the other directors met to suspend him.

In his court papers, he says that on January 13, Mr Kirundi had during a directors’ meeting asked the company secretary “to seek advice of three governance institutions on whether serving concurrently in both boards of Sasini Ltd and Kiru tea factory would amount to conflict of interest by the applicant”.

He also challenged a board meeting held on March 15 at a hotel in Murang’a, saying it was unprocedural as the venue was different from that indicated in the notice. He says he went to the factory premises, where the directors were to meet, but found there was no quorum.