The dispute between the proprietor of popular city joint Simmers and his landlord returned to the courts yesterday.
Simmers owner former Kimilili MP Suleiman Murunga filed an application at the Environment and Land Division, seeking to send directors of Nilestar Holdings Limited and Green Valley Limited to civil jail for disobeying court orders.
Murunga said the directors, despite being aware of an order restraining them from interfering with his restaurant, went ahead and destroyed his property.
“I have lost my entire investment, stocks, furniture and equipment, and my employees have been rendered jobless,” he said.
The businessman-cum-politician has fought over the plot with the family of former Finance minister Arthur Magugu, which argues it co-owns the property with Nilestar Holdings Limited.
On Friday, a demolition squad descended on the restaurant and flattened it, bringing its operations to an end after decades of existence.
At the center of the dispute is alleged rent arrears amounting to Sh7,560,000, legal fees of Sh 756,000 and court brokers charges of Sh910,860.
In the application, Murunga accuses Madatali Ebrahim, Jamilleh Ebrahim and Jalaledin Ebrahim, together with Maragret Wairimu and Kinyanjui Magugu. Others are Gibson Ndungu and Leo Nyangau.
He says they fraudulently and unlawfully processed and obtained a tittle for the suit in an attempt to defeat his claim and circumvent the course of justice.
He argues that on December 24, 2013 the court granted him interim orders restraining the directors from trespassing or evicting him from the property, pending the hearing and determination of the case.
A judgment was later entered against him but he filed an application seeking to set aside the judgment.
On July 14, 2014 further orders were issued and extended by consent on December 15, 2016.
“On February 20, 2018, despite an existing order while the case was still pending, with interim orders in place, the directors filed an application in the magistrate’s court and obtained an eviction order," Murunga says.
He wants the court to restore the property back to him, pending the hearing and determination of the application.
“The destruction of the applicant’s property was an act of contempt and deliberate disobedience of the orders of the court and was, in any event, an affront to the power and authority and dignity of the court calculated to bring the court into disrepute,” he says.
Further he says the actions are callous, fraudulent, illegal and contemptuous of the orders of the court.
Justice Elija Obaga directed Murunga to file and serve respondents.
The case will be heard on April 4.