KDIC and CBK move caused the adjournment of the hearing of their application seeking freeze of assets and shares held by the directors/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 26 – Kenya Deposit Insurance Corporation (KDIC) and Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) stalled their case, as their lawyer sought disqualification of counsels representing former directors and shareholders of Imperial Bank Limited (IBL).
KDIC and CBK move caused the adjournment of the hearing of their application seeking freeze of assets and shares held by the directors.
The application for disqualification of law firms of Ahmednasir Abdullahi and Muriu Mungai filed on Wednesday by Philip Murgor on behalf of KDIC and CBK, was strongly opposed by senior counsel Paul Muite.
Muite, told the presiding judge Justice Francis Tuyoit, that the application if allowed to be heard will impact negatively on his clients and is meant to delay the hearing of the main application filed by KDIC, CBK and Imperial Bank under receivership.
He said the application is coming when parties have prepared for the hearing of the substantive application, which the presiding judge had given two days hearing.
“The application was filed this morning by the applicants who came to court under certificate of urgency and it appears that they have abandoned the main notice of motion,” he said.
Muite, Abdullahi and Mungai said that they were not going to respond to the application for disqualification of lawyers and urged the court to order the matter proceed as directed.
The urgency of the substantive application by KDIC and CBK whose main prayer is to seek freeze of assets and shares of the former directors and shareholders seems to have disappeared and parties are now being engaged in side shows.
The applicants rely heavily in their application on forensic investigations by FTI firm whose reports the defendants have asked to be produced for purposes of ascertaining the allegations of fraud has not been done.
The proceedings by the bank, CBK and KDIC against former directors and shareholders was given two days that is 26 and 27 of October 2016.
On 30 September 2016 CBK filed the application seeking adverse orders against the directors, which orders were based on the finding of the FTI report that has not been annexed to the application before court.
The directors argue that the initial report by FTI did not allude to fraud or negligence on the part of the directors.
According to one of the directors the allegation by the bank, CBK and KDIC against them is not supported by way of evidence.
The directors have sought the court’s indulgence to consider their application and issue the order for the production of the report by the FTI audit.
They say that the purpose of the report is to enable the court look at the evidence and allegations made against them by the bank, KDIC and CBK, which seeks to seize their shares and assets.
The report will further assist the directors to interrogate the allegations and the purported findings which form the substratum of the suit by the bank, KDIC and CBK against them.
Justice Tuyoit said he will directions Thursday as to which application is to be heard first.
