Kenya’s 30 banks are entangled in a legal suit in which a tech innovator is seeking Sh1 billion from the lenders, claiming that they used his idea to launch the interbank transfer service known as PesaLink.
Through senior counsel Tom Ojienda, Stephen Muikia Njongoro, says that PesaLink bears similar salient features and components as an idea he had shared with the Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) in 2015. He claims in court papers that the banks have raked in Sh2 billion from the money transfer platform and is claiming half of the earnings. “PesaLink bears similar salient features and components as my original expressed idea, which I had presented to the defendants way back in 2015,” said Mr Njongoro in court documents. “The second defendant has even shamefully used a substantively similar logo as that proposed by the plaintiff, as the trademark for its stolen PesaLink product”.
