Court battle as Nyagah, Vimal unseated at Tatu City
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Mr Nyagah said the foreign investors want exclusive control over affairs of Tatu City Ltd and Kofinaf, the coffee firm on whose land the project sits, so that they may pilfering the capital and income.
Upon completion, Tatu City will accommodate 70,000 residents and 30,000 day visitors, according to its planners, who have primed the project as an important contribution to Vision 2030.
In 2010, minority shareholders Stephen Mwagiru and Rosemary Wanja filed two winding up petitions seeking to dissolve Tatu City and Kofinaf, alleging that the majority shareholders had sidelined them.
A boardroom coup unseating former Central Bank Governor Nahashon Nyagah as chairman of Tatu City Ltd has brought to light the latest shareholders' row rocking the Sh240 billion project.
On Friday, Mr Nyagah and fellow director Vimal Shah moved to the High Court accusing their counterparts, Mr Stephen Jennings and Mr Hans Jochum Horn, of frustrating the project and failing to account for money raised since the project began.
Mr Nyagah also claims to have been kicked out as a director and chairman of the board. Mr Pius Mbugua Ngugi has been appointed in his place. Other managers of Tatu City Ltd were also appointed.
Mr Nyagah said these actions are being undertaken by the foreign investors to give them exclusive control over affairs of Tatu City Ltd and Kofinaf, a coffee firm on whose land the project sits, so that they may continue pilfering the capital and income of the company and its assets.
“There is real danger that such actions will leave the company exposed because the properties of Tatu City Ltd and Kofinaf Company Ltd would have been sold, the proceeds siphoned out of the country and beyond reach,” said the former Central Bank of Kenya governor.
“(Mr Jennings and Mr Horn) are not Kenyan nationals and cannot be readily available to account should the project stall or fall.”
The application was certified urgent and will be heard on February 27, 2015.
In the court papers, Mr Nyagah said partners in the project had jointly secured a loan for purchase of Kofinaf, a privately held coffee producer with vast land holdings in Ruiru.
“The loan was secured by a charge over the shares and properties of Tatu City Ltd through the agency of Renaissance Partners Investment Ltd, a company under the control of Mr Jennings, Mr Jochum (Horn), Mr Frances Holiday and Mr Frank Mosier,” Mr Nyagah said.
Mr Horn is the current chief executive of the Renaissance Group, while Mr Jennings, the group’s founder, was his predecessor. Jennings resigned on January 1, 2013, after exiting his loss-making investment bank, Renaissance Capital, in November 2012.
Several properties of Kofinaf Company have been sold and the proceeds allegedly used to repay the loan.
However, the four associates in Renaissance Partners have failed to account for the amounts repaid, despite requests from Mr Nyagah and Mr Shah.
