Kenya Railways Corporation (KRC) has lost an appeal seeking to overturn a judgment directing the corporation to pay Sh217 million to Telkom Kenya Limited for telephone services rendered between the 1980s and 2006.
The Court of Appeal dismissed the argument that the demand made by Telkom in December 2015 was time-barred.
Justices Hellen Omondi, Abida Ali-Aroni and John Mativo ruled that the nature of services supplied by Telkom to KRC gave the company an obligation to pay, as they were not statutory functions to be blocked by the KRC Act.
“We do not agree with the appellant’s argument that the respondent’s suit is time-barred and that the operating law is KRC Act, and in particular Section 87 (b) and Section 13(2) (k) which vests the corporation with contractual powers, as part of the powers of the corporation,” the judges said.
Evidence presented in court showed that Telkom sued KRC in 2016 claiming Sh217 million for the provision of Public Switched Telephone Network, voice services and data-oriented telecommunication services.
The services were rendered between the 1980s and 2006 and Telkom sought Sh128.5 million for voice-oriented services whereas data services for the same period amounted to Sh88.6 million.
According to Telkom, after several meetings held in an attempt to settle the matter, KRC accepted liability for the principal sum but in breach of contractual obligation, failed to pay the bills within the time the parties agreed.
KRC denied the claims arguing there was no agreement and the claim was time barred by virtue of the statute of limitation.
The court heard that after several months of negotiations, KRC acknowledged its indebtedness to the tune of Sh212 million as at October 2013.
