A Kenyan company has sued Finnish multinational Nokia Corporation for alleged breach of a partnership deal.
TechnoServe Limited says Nokia breached the deal and wants to be paid Sh150 million compensation.
According to suit papers the company invested into a deal establishing Nokia care branded service centres across the country.
However, this was transferred to Microsoft without seeking consent of TechnoServe, the suit papers say.
The company claims it launched Nokia service centre at Gateway Business Park, to promote the brand and products.
Additionally, the centre was used to train technicians from other business partners across the region instead of sending them to Dubai, United Arab Emirates or South Africa, as was done previously.
The company was presented with a service agreement in April 2007 to regulate the remuneration of services provided by the company to products under limited manufacturer warranty of Nokia. The agreement was never concluded.
In 2007 and 2008, the company launched Nokia care service and collection points across Nairobi. TechnoServe said it launched another centre on Oginga Odinga Street at Swan centre in Kisumu.
Other centres were launched in Mombasa, Hilton Hotel building in Nairobi and Remax Shopping Village on Argwings Kodhek Road, also in Nairobi. The latter was exclusively used by VIPs and B2B customers such as Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.
As a result, it says Nokia’s business in the country grew tremendously and generated revenue from $10 million in 2006 to $150 million in 2013.
“The plaintiff avers that the 1st defendants and 4th defendants’ employees admitted and acknowledged, by way of correspondence and letters, the plaintiffs contribution to its success in Kenya,” court documents stated.
The company said it suffered damages in business created over nine years during the partnership and is seeking US$1,380,000 (about Sh149 million) plus damages.
The suit papers list Nokia Corporation, Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia chairman Stephen Elop, who was the chief operating officer at Nokia between 2010 to 2014 and Nokia International OY- a company in Finland but registered in Kenya, as the respondents.
- mwaniki fm
