Nairobi lawyer Fred Ngatia has moved to court over Sh15 Million in legal fees against Interactive Gaming and Lotteries Limited.
Ngatia, who represented President Uhuru Kenyatta during the election petition, sued the company demanding his dues for legal services rendered between 2011 and 2013.
In the court documents, the advocate wants the court to freeze the betting company's account at Chase Bank.
“In the event that these funds held at Chase Bank Ltd are released to the defendant, the plaintiff will not be able to recover the taxed costs from the defendant as the plaintiff is not aware of any assets owned by the defendant in Kenya,” read part of the petition.
[caption caption="Lawyer Fred Ngatia"]
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Ngatia added that in addition to failing to pay him, the betting the firm had challenged all fees.
According to the petition documents, the law firm was acting for the betting firm when it was a joint signatory in a Sh50 Million account at Chase Bank.
He explained that their business relationship lasted until 2013 when the betting company hired another law firm to handle the business.
An attempt by Ngatia to have his legal fees paid from the funds in the account hit a snag when in 2017, a court ruled that the betting firm had not consented to have the funds used in that way.
During the ruling in November 2017, the court ordered that the funds in the account be released to the company.
Ngatia further stated that after Chase Bank went into receivership, the company's account had a Sh33 Million balance - an amount he feared would be released to the betting firm.
[caption caption="File image of a Chase Bank branch"]
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He told the court that the Bank should be releasing the funds to depositors after successful acquisition by Mauritian firm SBM Holdings.
