A court has allowed Credit Reference Bureau Africa Limited to claim Sh4.1 million from a telecoms company, True African (Kenya) Limited, following the termination of a contract for Short Messaging Services four years ago.
Commercial disputes judge Chacha Mwita reversed the lower court’s decision to dismiss a request by the CRB, trading as Transunion, to enter a judgment in its favour for a sum of Sh4,108,140.
The judge also dismissed a request by True African to have the court proceedings suspended and referred the row to arbitration.
Justice Mwita said since there was an agreement indicating that True African owed Transunion the amount claimed in the court papers and the said agreement was also clear that if parties failed to mutually resolve the dispute recourse would be to the court.
He said the agreement dated July 31, 2019, was an unequivocal admission of True African’s indebtedness to Transunion.
The dispute stemmed from a communication deal between Transunion and True African in 2015.
Transunion entered into a service level agreement with True African on May 7, 2015, for the provision of Short Messaging Service (SMS) communication services for its customers, whose KCB M-pesa loan applications were rejected.
In the agreement, True African was also to provide Transunion customers with access to a summary of their credit status, credit reports and other SMS services.
Since both parties had claims against one another, they entered into negotiations which led to a set-off agreement dated July 31, 2019.
In that agreement, it was agreed that after settling accounts, True African owed Sh4,108,240 to Transunion. True African declined to pay that amount prompting Transunion to file a suit before the Chief Magistrate’s Milimani Commercial Courts, Nairobi claiming the said amount with interest and costs.
