A small claims court in Kajiado on Thursday awarded a claimant, Robert Nyaga Sh400, 000 he lost in a business deal with two Kitengela town businesswomen.
Magistrate Rodah Kinyatti, while delivering her judgement in a case filed by Nyaga against Hanah Njeri (1st respondent) and Mary Nashipae (2nd respondent), said she had gathered enough evidence the claimant was short-changed.
“Having considered the evidence tendered by the claimant, I find that the claimant proved his case against the respondents on a balance of probabilities,” said Kinyatti.
Nyaga filed a suit seeking judgement in the sum of Sh400,000, costs and interest of the claim.
The claimant testified in court that in June 2022, he was approached by Njeri to assist her in financing a local purchase order that had been issued in favour of Nashipae’s company, Hamijo Favoured Enterprise.
The LPO, he told the court, had been issued to the second respondent by Three ‘N’ International to supply construction materials valued at Sh3 million.
Nyaga testified that he agreed to be subcontracted by the second respondent and he financed the LPO by buying construction materials worth Sh1,514,007 which were delivered.
The claimant further testified that upon successful completion of the transaction, he received two cheques from Nashipae.
The first cheque of Sh614,007 was successfully banked, while the second one of Sh900,000 did not go through because the respondent’s bank account had insufficient funds.
Nyaga told the magistrate that he further followed up with the second respondent and was paid Sh500,000.
The claimant averred that he tried to recover his balance of Sh400,000 from the respondents, who alluded that the balance had been utilised to pay value-added tax at 16 per cent for the respondent’s company - Hamijo Favoured Enterprise Hardware, hence the filing of the case.
In her response, Njeri testified that the claimant was known to her and indeed she approached him to assist the second respondent in financing the LPO.
She further admitted the claimant agreed to be subcontracted by the second respondent and financed half of the LPO amount.
Though she admitted having brought the claimant on board, she stated that she was not in a position of paying the claimant given that the second respondent was the sole director of the company that did the business.
Nashipaie, in her submission, denied entering into a contract with the claimant, though she issued two cheques in favour of the claimant on July 12, 2022.
Additionally, she stated that she paid VAT of 16 per cent from the proceeds gained.
Magistrate Kinyatti in her final ruling said:
“Judgment is entered accordingly in favour of the claimant against the respondents in the sum of Sh400,000 together with costs and interest at court rates from the date of filing this claim till payment in full.”
