A case challenging the sale of Muhotetu Farmers Company shares in the expansive Kedong ranch has been thrown out.
Justice Roslyne Aburili said the applicants - John Nderitu and Joseph Wagura - lied to the court and failed to disclose that there was a similar case before the Nakuru High Court seeking to reverse the sale.
"In the end I find and hold that the applicants have not made a case for grant of the judicial review remedies sought. Accordingly, I find and hold that the application is devoid of any substance, the same is hereby dismissed with costs to the respondents and interested parties,” Ms Aburili ruled.
She noted that their lawyer, Joseph Mathenge, did not disclose that Muhotetu members met on August 5, 2017 after a notice by the leadership. The applicants had argued that the land buying company had not held an annual general meeting in four years.
She ruled that the petitioners had engaged the court in an academic exercise.
“This court is being asked to act in vain to grant orders that would be for academic purposes and therefore of no legal effect. There could have (been) no planned AGM without a date. The applicants in my view do not deserve any orders. The oral submissions by their counsel are not supported by the pleadings, which are nebulous and unclear. The prayer is a waste of judicial time and resources,” Aburili said.
She continued: “The applicants obtained leave and stay orders from this court by way of concealment of material facts and on that ground alone, the application herein would be amenable for dismissal and interim stay discharged effectively.”
Mr Nderitu and Mr Wagura will now have to pay the cost incurred by Muhotetu directors, Kedong ranch and the State Law Office.
At the centre of the dispute was the sale of Kedong Ranch shares.
The shareholders told the court that the land the applicants were after had already been sold after members unanimously agreed to do that.
The decision was ratified after the over 700 shareholders finally agreed to sell the 2,439 acres at Kedong in Naivasha to a private developer.
They also told the court that a similar case had been lodged before the Nakuru High Court but it declined to issue temporary orders.
In the Nakuru case, the High Court dismissed the suit against the nine directors of Muhotetu, noting that the company would incur losses as it had already entered bidding contracts for the sale of Kedong Ranch.
Justice Aburili observed that she was made to believe that the case before her was urgent as the shares had allegedly not been disposed of, only for her to find out on reply by Kedong that she was being taken for a ride.
“The applicants were denied an injunction in NKR HCC 20/2024 and instead of appealing against that decision, they jumped into this court with the prayer of prohibition by a way of judicial review. That is unacceptable because an injunction and prohibition orders would have the same effect - stop the sale of Kedong,” the judge observed.
The two petitioners, who are also members of Kedong, alleged that the Registrar of Companies had cancelled the meeting that had been held to deliberate on the sale of the land shares.
