President William Ruto's Senior Economic Advisor, Moses Kuria, can breathe a sigh of relief after the High Court stopped the auction of his property by a local bank.
Justice Anne Mogeni, in her ruling on Friday, April 11, issued a conservatory order, temporarily halting the auction of Kuria's prime apartments in Ruaka and Juja Estates in Kiambu County.
The interim orders followed an application filed by the former Public Service Cabinet Secretary's wife, Joyce Njambi, at the High Court, challenging the ruling that gave the bank the leeway to auction Kuria's apartments.
While giving the orders, the judge cautioned the bank against auctioning the properties, noting that there would be consequences for disobedience. Following the interim orders, the judge set the hearing of the application for April 30, 2025.
Yesterday's court order followed days after Kuria applied to stop the sale of his property; however, Judge Aleem Visram declined his application, paving the way for the auction.
In the ruling issued on April 7, 2025, Justice Aleem said the president's advisor failed to honour a financial obligation on a Ksh50 million loan he took several years ago.
According to the judge, during the inquiry, it was evident that efforts to renegotiate the terms of the loan repayment and handle the matter more amicably had failed.
However, Kuria, in his application, noted that the bank only disbursed Ksh40 million to him and not the Ksh50 million as alleged in the petitioner's application.
Documents submitted to the court showed that the former Trade CS stopped servicing the loan in 2022 and that the amount had accrued more interest, reaching Ksh54 million.
Ruto's adviser, while defending himself in court, told the judge that he had since paid Ksh5.7 million of the loan, which, according to him, demonstrated goodwill to repay the full amount.
Kuria's defence was rebutted by the judge, who noted that the amount repaid by Kuria was too little based on what he ought to have repaid as per the agreement.
According to Visram, Kuria did not table adequate evidence to stop the sale of his property and stressed that the financial obligation must be honoured. Consequently, the properties were put up for auction by an auctioneer, Garam Investments Ltd.
