High Court Judge, Wilfrida Okwany, has ordered Kenya Airways (KQ) to surrender a batch of ICT equipment it leased from Rentworks East Africa, over a KSh102 million debt
As Daily Nation reports, Kenya Airways since 2007 entered into 18 separate lease contracts for ICT equipment with the firm in context, but defaulted on payments along the way, forcing the latter to call off the deal.
The leasing firm is a joint venture between Australia’s Rentworks Group and South Africa’s Shanduka Group. The two businesses partnered in 2003 to form Rentworks East Africa, which is co-owned by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. They secured their first contract with KQ four years later.
Initially, Rentworks sued Kenya Airways in 2018, but the two reached an out-of-court deal to have the dispute resolved through arbitration. However, KQ argued that arbiter Kariuki Muigai had rewritten the contract and ordered the carrier to pay KSh102 million with a 10% interest from the date of filing the claim until full payment.
But Justice Okwany held that the arbitration agreement between Kenya Airways and Rentworks covered any dispute that might arise between them, so Dr Muigai did not go beyond his authority in determining the dispute.
This unfolds even as KQ is planning to resume local operations this month. The ruling may throw the carrier’s plans into jeopardy.
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