The Court of Appeal on Wednesday restored former President Mwai Kibaki and seven others as the Mathingira Wholesalers Company board of directors.
The former president and the other directors moved to the appellate court after the Nyeri Environment and Lands Court ruled in favour of a new set of directors who claimed to have been legitimately appointed.
Kibaki formed the multi-million shilling company along with the ousted directors in the 1970s but lost control of it after the 2016 ruling by Lady Justice Lucy Waithaka.
Judges Agnes Murgor, Fatuma Sichale and Sankale Ole Kantai, however, found that the new directors had been appointed without authority from the founding directors.
[caption caption="File image of former president Mwai Kibaki"]
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The three-judge bench deemed the new board as "strangers and imposters" and could not be trusted with managing the company's 0.0697 hectares land in Nyeri town.
"We are satisfied the court adopted the wrong position. The suit property belongs to the list of proprietors declared by a certificate of lease issued in 1976 and renewed in 2012," the judges ruled.
They further observed that the founding directors had not transferred their shares in accordance with the Company Articles and Memorandum of Association requirements.
"The new members who acquired the shares later were not aware of the procedures. They did not acquire rights as the suit property was not passed from the original owners," they stated.
The court heard that the former president and a former councillor, one Mr Kanyungu, were the only surviving founders, all others were said to be dead.
Kibaki's lawyer, Senior Counsel Kamau Kuria welcomed the court ruling stating: "Kibaki did not use his position in the country to fight the imposters. He has stuck to the rule of law even when he lost control of the property."
[caption caption="Senior Counsel Gibson Kamau Kuria"]
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