Ernest Mureithi, the man Dubai tycoon Sunny Varkey tasked with running Gems Cambridge campuses in Kenya, has for the third time sued Kiambu Mall owner Peter Burugu in a bid to take control of a Runda-based school recently sold for Sh1.2 billion.
In the latest application before the commercial division of the High Court, Dr Mureithi is seeking to scuttle Mr Burugu’s sale of Regis Runda Academy Ltd to ADvTECH, a firm listed on South Africa’s stock exchange and which owns the Makini chain of schools, for Sh1.2 billion.
Disputes surrounding the school stem from Mr Varkey’s divestment in Kenya, instead partnering up with India's Gautam Adani to expand the Gems Cambridge brand in India and the Middle East.
The case has revealed that the Regis Runda Academy Ltd filed complaints of alleged criminal acts by GNAL and Dr Mureithi. In the court papers, Dr Mureithi does not state whether authorities have taken any action against him, such as prosecution.
In the suit papers, Dr Mureithi claims that the complaints against alleged criminal acts were an attempt by Regis Runda Academy Ltd to take control and ownership of the school.
Dr Mureithi has sued through Gems National Academy Ltd (GNAL), the entity that Dubai's Mr Varkey used to establish the Runda school. GNAL has sued Regis Runda Academy Ltd, Runda Gardens Development Ltd, Mr Burugu (right) and his wife Mary, Makini School Ltd, the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) and the Attorney-General.
GNAL was initially fully owned by Mr Varkey's Dubai-registered Gems Africa Ltd.
However, the tycoon sold his 70 percent stake in GNAL to Dr Mureithi for $1 (Sh129) in 2021 on condition that the latter would settle all of the school's liabilities, as the Gems group sought to limit its control of schools to the Middle East.
Mr Varkey later allowed the Burugus to take ownership and control of the school, citing their disinterest in running institutions outside the Middle East.
In 2023, the High Court twice dismissed applications Dr Mureithi had filed through GNAL, seeking to wrestle control of the school from the Burugus.
Justice Lucy Mbugua, on February 22, 2024, dismissed an application by GNAL and Dr Mureithi, ruling that he had not sufficiently explained to the court the nature and extent of his interest in the school to warrant orders.
The judge added that GNAL had, in March 2023—barely three months after ceding control of the school to the Burugus—filed a similar application and obtained favourable temporary orders before abandoning the case.
“The foregoing analysis depicts the plaintiff as a party who has approached the court with unclean hands. They (GNAL and Dr Mureithi) have not sufficiently established the nature and extent of their rights and interests in the suit property where the school stands. In the circumstances, they do not deserve the orders sought,” Justice Mbugua ruled.
Dr Mureithi, in his fresh application, maintains that the school and its equipment are owned by GNAL, which was excluded from the sale to South Africa's ADvTECH.
He claims that the Burugus orchestrated a hostile takeover by forming Regis Runda Academy Ltd to operate the same school, before selling it.
The sale to ADvTECH, Dr Mureithi holds, has allowed the Burugus to rake in Sh1.2 billion, while leaving his GNAL owing lenders and other creditors more than Sh300 million.
Documents filed in a separate case in Dubai, where the Burugus sued Mr Varkey's Gems Africa Ltd, indicate that when the Kiambu family took control of the school in 2022, they signed a Master Licence Agreement with GNAL. That document protected them from inheriting the school's debts, which Dr Mureithi now reveals in GNAL's fresh case have ballooned to more than Sh300 million.
The Dubai case also revealed that both the Burugus and Mr Varkey had planned to sue Dr Mureithi for alleged mismanagement of the Runda school.
When the licence lapsed, the Burugus notified GNAL of their intention to operate a school on the same land, hence asked the latter to vacate the land.
The school sits on five acres of land owned by the Burugus' Runda Gardens Development Ltd, with another two acres reserved for expansion. It has more than 1,300 learners.
Dr Mureithi has accused the Competition Authority of Kenya of ignoring two complaints filed by suppliers against Regis School Runda—Jewjaz Suppliers (owed Sh12 million) and Joop Services and Engineering Works Ltd (owed Sh17 million)—which he insists should have been the basis for declining approval of Makini's purchase of the school.
“The sixth defendant (CAK), through a notice dated July 28, 2025, authorised the sale while ignoring the complaints regarding the matter, which was reported to them earlier by the plaintiff (Gems) on this unlawful and irregular hostile takeover of the referred school by the Regis Runda Academy, Runda Gardens Development Limited, Peter Burugu and Mary Burugu,” says lawyer Paul Musungu for GNAL.
He wants the Burugus compelled to pay GNAL the value of the school as of 2022, which Dr Mureithi says is Sh512.8 million, or the current market price, whichever is higher.
He also wants the Burugus compelled to take up the Sh300 million debts, and to refund a Sh50 million payment that the GNAL paid to Runda Gardens Development Ltd in 2018 when still owned by Mr Varkey's Gems Africa Ltd.
Dr Mureithi further wants compensation for alleged copyright infringement on the academic materials and formula, teaching and learning material, school concepts, academic and management structures.
The Burugus, despite selling the school to ADvTECH, are also pursuing Mr Varkey for enforcement of a settlement agreement that was to see the Dubai tycoon pay $1.85 (Sh239 million) as compensation for frustrating the 30-year lease signed in 2018, that was to see the school operated on the Runda land.
The lease included a 10-year lock-in period, which saw the Burugus demand Sh754.9 million, before lowering their claim to Sh394 million, and eventually accepting Mr Varkey’s Sh239 million counteroffer.
The Burugus’ Runda Gardens Development Ltd sued Mr Varkey’s Gems Africa Ltd in Dubai in 2024.
Gems Africa Ltd successfully applied for insolvency in 2025, which suspended debt claims and court cases against the company unless granted permission by the Dubai courts.
