British telecoms giant Vodafone Group wants the hearing of a case filed by a former Safaricom distributor stopped, arguing that it was not properly joined to the case.
Goodweek Inter-Services Limited accused Safaricom of switching it off from the dealer trading portal without notice after the firm failed to sign a new framework agreement.
The trader added that Safaricom had arbitrarily suspended its access to the online portal through which its operations are carried out.
Appearing before High Court judge Chacha Mwita on Tuesday, Vodafone revealed it has appealed against the court’s June ruling that allowed Goodweek to join the UK firm in the dispute with Safaricom over the terminated dealership.
The multinational firm maintains that it was not properly served with court documents and insists that the Kenyan trader should have first obtained the court’s permission before dragging it into the case.
“It is in the interest of justice that this court stay the proceedings to preserve the subject matter before the Court of Appeal and enable the Court of Appeal to determine these matters and to prevent a miscarriage of justice,” the firm said in the application.
In a ruling on June 27, Justice Mwita declined to strike out Vodafone Group from the proceedings and held that the UK firm was properly served through e-mail.
The judge added that Goodweek did not require leave of the court to serve the foreign company, outside the country.
Nickola John Vidovich, Vodafone's group legal director of litigation, further revealed that it instructed its lawyer, Abbas Esmail, to conduct a search on Mobitelea, another firm joined in the case and found that the firm does not exist.
“…that he attempted to conduct an official search on the Business Registration Service’s (BRS) online platform to confirm Mobitelea’s details recorded with the BRS. Mr Esmail informs me that his attempted search on Mobitelea was unsuccessful since the BRS online platform returned a search result saying that there were 'no businesses found matching your criteria' indicating that Mobitelea is not a Kenyan company as alleged,” he said in an affidavit.
Goodweek Inter-services Ltd, through lawyer Ken Kiplagat, submitted that the application has been overtaken by events as the court already issued directions for the determination of the petition.
Justice Mwita directed the case to be heard on November 19.
The dealer claims that the switch off is unlawful and threatens to collapse its business.
“The first respondent’s (Safaricom) actions are malicious and are calculated at coercing the petitioner to renew its Dealer Agreement with first respondent on unfavourable commercial terms which Safaricom has unilaterally introduced,” the firm submitted.
According to the trader, the company invested Sh180 million and has employed more than 200 people across the country.
The distributor said its business is exclusively conducted on the online Safaricom Dealer Portal, which is in the full control of the telco.
The court was informed that the trader has been a major dealer and a distributor of Safaricom products for the last 20 years.
The distributor described the switch-off as a crude and desperate negotiation tactic by Safaricom, which was allegedly abusing its dominance to coerce the trader.
