Raphael Tuju, the Secretary-General of the Jubilee party, has filed a lawsuit against the East Africa Development Bank (EADB) for Sh3.1 billion in damages and breach of a mutual contract.
Tuju, through his Dari Company, claims that he and his children suffered irreparable harm as a result of the bank’s egregious breach of contract, according to a lawsuit filed in Arusha’s High Court and the East African Court of Justice (EACJ).
Tuju claims he sought a loan of Sh1.2 billion, Sh943 million for the acquisition of a 22-acre forested plot dubbed Entim Sidai in Karen and the purchase of a 94-year-old home in a 70-page complaint filed in the High Court in July and another 76-page case filed at the East African Court of Justice.
After EADB opposed his case at the High Court, claiming immunity to be tried in local courts, he moved to the regional court. According to court documents, the bank required Tuju to pay 10% of the purchase price of the Entim Sidai before the loan for land and construction could be released.
Tuju informed the court that when the land board approved the change of user, the bank changed its mind and insisted on charging a plot in Upper Hill valued at Sh900 million instead of the Entim Sidai title as agreed.
The bank still refused after he was charged Sh20 million by Marks and Maxel Stamp as a restructuring fee.
He further accuses the bank of preventing a Dubai-based investor from purchasing the full loan and taking over the development of the Dari and Entim Sidai projects, for which the UAE bank was prepared to invest Sh3 billion.
“The investor was willing to pay EADB Sh1 billion as part of the money they had granted him and infuse another Sh2 billion into the two projects at Dari and Entim Sidai,” according to court documents.
To take over the project, the Dubai investor just needed an Entim Sidai title deed. They planned to build a five-star hotel under the global Four Seasons or Monarch Hotels franchises.
Tuju, his son and daughter – Alma, Mano, Raphael, and Yma – accuse the court in London of being unfair in court papers filed at the High Court in Milimani and the EACJ, claiming that the judge who ruled on the London case was a part-time judge who was a full-time solicitor at Evershed, a firm that had a contract with EADB.
He pointed out that Evershed employed Daniel Toledano, a deputy judge of the UK High Court, as well as the daughter of the EADB chief executive officer.
The London court’s decision to auction Tuju’s businesses was overturned by the Court of Appeal, putting an end to any attempts to declare Tuju bankrupt and sell his assets to repay the EADB bank.
