Tuju suffers blow as Court clears path for auctioning of property over Sh2.2bn loan

Former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju./FILE

Former Cabinet Secretary Raphael Tuju has suffered a setback after the High Court struck out his bid to stop the auctioning of his multi-billion-shilling property to recover a Sh2.2 billion bank loan.

Tuju had, in 2024, moved to court seeking injunction orders to stop Garam Investment Auctioneers from selling his prime properties in Karen and along Ngong Road in Nairobi.

Previous judgments, including one from a London court, had ruled against Tuju.

However, the former Rarieda lawmaker sought to reopen the case, arguing that there was new evidence in the Sh2.2 billion debt dispute involving the East African Development Bank.

Judges of the Supreme Court of Kenya had in 2023 dismissed Tuju’s appeal. Justices Philomena Mwilu, Mohammed Ibrahim, Smokin Wanjala, Njoki Ndungu and William Ouko said they were not satisfied with Tuju’s request for the production of additional evidence.

“As a matter of course, the petitioners have not explained the relevance of this further witness statement in relation to their appeal,” they said.

The evidence in question was a further witness statement recorded with the Directorate of Criminal Investigations by David Washington Barnabas Ochieng, dated December 21, 2022.

Tuju sought to introduce the statement as evidence relating to the pre-contract engagements between him and the bank.

Tuju’s business enterprise, Dari Limited, also lost an application seeking to have an affidavit by the East African Development Bank struck out.

The affidavit was sworn by Carol Luwaga.

Tuju and four other petitioners, including Dari Limited, contended that the bank’s response opposing his appeal in the form of a replying affidavit sworn by Luwaga, a resident of Kampala, Uganda, was incompetent.

“This is because it was allegedly sworn in Nairobi before a Commissioner for Oaths without any evidence that she was in Nairobi at the time,” Tuju argued in court documents.

Back in the High Court, Tuju argued that the new evidence would tilt the outcome of the litigation in his favour.

The application was opposed by Garam Investment Auctioneers, the East African Development Bank and Knight Frank Valuers.

They asked the court to dismiss the application, arguing that it was an abuse of the court process, vexatious and intended to delay the loan recovery.

Justice Josephine Mongare, in her ruling dated March 9, 2026, noted that the plaintiffs were essentially asking the court to re-hear an injunction that had already been denied, reopen a debt already adjudicated internationally and recognised domestically, and re-litigate the enforceability of securities over properties already subject to multiple court orders.

“I find that the bank’s position and objection are well-founded that this application is a blatant abuse of court process, meant to frustrate its lawful recovery efforts after years of default and litigation,” Mongare said.

“There is no way that the plaintiffs’ amended plaint dated April 25, 2025, survives, and the same is accordingly struck out.”

Tuju has now failed to stop the auctioning of his Entim Sidai Wellness Sanctuary and properties linked to Dari Limited after the application was dismissed.

The case is likely to have effectively ended with Justice Mongare’s ruling, given that the Supreme Court had already dismissed similar attempts.

The Supreme Court judges earlier dismissed Tuju’s arguments, saying they had not been proven.

“It is trite law that whoever alleges must prove. In this case, the petitioners who have alleged have not validated their averments with any proof to justify their allegations. Therefore, these are bare allegations that are unsubstantiated, and we say no more,” they said.

The dispute arises from a Sh1.5 billion loan granted to Tuju by the East African Development Bank, which the bank says fell into default.

His children acted as guarantors for the facility.

The loan was intended to finance the construction of 12 two-storey bungalows in Karen, each valued at about Sh100 million.