Hotelier William Osewe Guda has denied blocking his estranged wife-Stella Mutheu from the management of Ranalo Foods. The two co-own the city restaurant business.
In a responding affidavit to Ms Mutheu’s case, Mr Osewe told the High Court that his former wife is still listed as a shareholder of Ranalo Foods, refuting claims that he has blocked her from the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.
Mr Osewe and Ms Mutheu are listed as directors and shareholders of Ranalo Foods. Each has a 50 percent stake in the company at the heart of the dispute between the separated couple. The two separated in 2022.
“...it is not true as alleged that I blocked the Applicant from accessing information relating to the affairs of the Company. The Applicant has not provided evidence on how I have restrained her from accessing information relating to the Company,” said Mr Osewe.
He added that as recently as December 2023 when the lease over the premises Ranalo operates on was being renewed, he involved Ms Mutheu who executed the renewed lease in her capacity as director and shareholder.
Ms Mutheu went to court seeking orders to restrain her former husband from selling the assets of the company and her reinstatement in the management of the business which operates outlets on Nairobi’s Kimathi Street, in Parklands and along Kiambu Road.
The wrangle between the once lovebirds comes at a time when auctioneers have invited bids for another of their assets including Blue Waters Hotel and an incomplete development in Kisumu’s Milimani area.
An apartment in South C, also linked to the Osewes, is listed for sale over an unpaid Sh300 million loan to Guaranty Trust Bank.
Mr Osewe’s active engagement in the business was cut short by a near-fatal gunshot on December 1, 2016, after which he was diagnosed as a person with permanent disability by Mbagathi Hospital. He stayed out of the active running of the business for three years, leaving the Nairobi outlet to his two children while Ms Mutheu retired to Kisumu—an arrangement he says they both agreed to.
On her claim that she made "considerable personal investments" towards the registration of the company, Mr Osewe told the court that he single-handedly built the firm, first registering it as a business name before inviting Mutheu to be a shareholder, when Ranalo Foods was registered as a limited liability company, which trades as K'Osewe.
Mr Osewe has however disputed Ms Mutheu's assertion that she injected money into the registration of the company, explaining that he started building what would grow into Ranalo Foods in 1977, before he met the future mother of his three children in 1983.
“I reiterate and clarify that there was absolutely no injection of capital from the applicant towards the set-up of the business as alleged and, as such, the applicant ought to prove such investments towards the business, if at all,” said Osewe in an affidavit dated June 19, 2025, while inviting the court to ask Ms Mutheu to produce evidence, such as bank transfers, showing she invested her money in setting up the business.
In her application, Ms Mutheu had told the court that she had injected some money towards the registration of the company.
