Oral East AfricaDari Coffee and Garden restaurant, the hotel owned by former Cabinet Secretary without Portfolio Raphael Tuju has been put to the hammer for Kes450 million.
The auction ended an almost half-decade fight between the former Jubilee Party secretary general and East Africa Development Bank (EADB) pursuing security after the minister defaulted on his loans.
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Mr Tuju and the regional bank were entangled in a web of litigation for almost half a decade, through all manner of courts locally and abroad, taking the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Political capitalism
Mr Tuju finally lost the property after his faction of the political elite lost power, and ran out of new avenues to continue the dispute. The case was finally determined by the recusal of five Supreme Court judges.
Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu and Justices Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndung’u and William Ouko disqualified themselves from hearing the case leaving the Court Appeals decision that awarded the rights to the property to EADB to stand.
Former CS Tuju is a classic example of how the fortunes of Kenya’s elite are tied to political protection and how that is impacting Kenya’s ability to trade with the outside world, and regional and global institutions.
Mr Tuju took the $9.3 million loan from the regional bank EADB in 2015 to build Entin Sidai, an exclusive two-storey flat-roofed bungalows on a 20-acre forested land, and buy the century-old Scottish bungalow built by missionary Dr Albert Patterson.
A few months after President Uhuru Kenyatta won the August 2017 re-election that would see Tuju join his cabinet, without serving any portfolio, the powerful politician defaulted. EADB says Dari Ltd breached the agreement by failing to pay $11,462,757 as of November 10, 2017, which led to several negotiations and lengthy court fights.
Unable to prosecute the powerful politician on Kenyan soil, the East African Bank even had to resort to suing in the United Kingdom and obtained a judgment against Mr Tuju.
His defense that the bank did not disburse the entire loan sum and that they declined to enter into a settlement has failed to hold.
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