Trouble started on Saturday when the contractor- Cementers Ltd warned against the demolition of the building in Kileleshwa, saying it might be used as evidence in a criminal case before a Nairobi magistrate.
MultiChoice on its part said it was complying with directives of the Nairobi County Government, to bring down the building after it was condemned due to safety concerns.
A dispute between MultiChoice and a local construction company has taken a new twist after the pay-tv firm started looking for a contractor to demolish a Sh895 million building which is subject to a court case.
Trouble started on Saturday when the contractor- Cementers Ltd warned against the demolition of the building in Kileleshwa, saying it might be used as evidence in a criminal case before a Nairobi magistrate.
MultiChoice on its part said it was complying with directives of the Nairobi County Government, to bring down the building after it was condemned due to safety concerns. The pay-tv firm hired Cementers to build the office block, but the parties fell out with the former terminating the contract in June 2017.
The termination of the contract set in motion a court battle before an arbitrator, civil and criminal courts.
“Any person who might have responded to the RFQ (Request for Quotation) is hereby put on notice about the risks involved in accepting any offer in the demolition of the building,” the notice by Nderitu & Partners read.
MultiChoice claimed the contractor did substandard works, leading to cracks on parts of the building. The entertainment company allegedly hired a team of experts, whose report faulted Cementers Ltd.
And last month, the team of experts – Kariuki Muchemi, Wilson Karaba and Stanley Kebathi – were charged with conspiring to falsify a structural integrity report as part of a plan to defraud.
The experts have been charged alongside Interconsult Engineers, Conapex Consulting Engineers and SK Archplans.
Cementers Ltd through senior counsel Wilfred Nderitu warned against destroying the building, saying the court might order a site visit before determining which of the two parties was responsible for their fallout.
“The public is notified that by reason of the foregoing, the building may be required in evidence in the said criminal case and that it would therefore be a criminal offence punishable under Section 116 of the Penal Code for anyone to willfully destroy or demolish it or render it incapable of identification in its current state with intent to preventing it from being used in evidence in the criminal case,” Mr Nderitu said.
MultiChoice, however, said the building has been propped since 2017 and the contractor has not obtained any court order or made applications asking to preserve it for any alleged evidence.
“The building is not an exhibit in any of the ongoing civil, arbitral and criminal cases between the parties,” MultiChoice said in a statement.
The report at the centre of the dispute stated that beams supporting parts of the building were sagging and columns cracking because the concrete used to put them up was not of the required strength as per the construction contract. This meant that Cementers was at fault for the defects.
However, Cementers’ position is that the structural integrity report was deliberately manipulated in order to blame the cause of the sagging beams on poor workmanship by the contractor, rather than a structural under-design by the engineer.
The tailored report is what landed the experts including two engineers, the project architect and an advocate in court. The case is pending before a Milimani court.
