Businessman Jaswant Rai has withdrawn four cases he had filed in court against the Mumias Sugar Company. According to Citizen TV, Rai, who owns West Kenya’s sugar company, has already issued three notices to the court of appeal and another one to the high court seeking to have the cases withdrawn.
The move comes a few days after he was kidnapped and released by unknown people in Nairobi last week.
During the kidnapping, his vehicle was abandoned on the road, only for the police from Kilimani to tow it to the station after they were informed of an abandoned vehicle, a Toyota Land Cruiser V8.
The decision by Jaswant Rai to withdraw the cases has also come after President William Samoei Ruto over the weekend accused him of being one of the people standing in the way of plans to revive Mumias’s sugar company.
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The head of state went ahead and asked the people who had cases in court against the company to withdraw them.
Jaswant Rai’s statement, however, elicited uproar from his critics, led by the Azimio la Umoja One Kenya Alliance party leader and the Law Society of Kenya, who argued that cases in court should be heard and determined without intimidation.
Rai’s withdrawal of cases is likely to elicit an interesting debate going forward, especially coming after the warning by the president.
These cases were
- A lawsuit filed in 2019 in which West Kenya Sugar Company and Jaswant Rai were interested parties/applicants in an insolvency case affecting Mumias Sugar Company.
- In this case, they applied to discontinue and withdraw their claim.
2. KCB & Receiver Manager Appeal challenge
- An appeal filed by Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) and P.V. Rao, the former receiver/administrator of Mumias Sugar Company, challenging a High Court decision that:
• nullified the lease awarded to the Sarrai Group
• revoked the lease and replaced the receiver. - Rai and West Kenya withdrew their involvement in opposing that appeal.
3. Sarrai Group appeal
- A case filed by Sarrai Group (owned by his brother Sarbjit Singh Rai) at the Court of Appeal to overturn a High Court decision cancelling Sarrai’s 20-year lease of Mumias Sugar Company.
- West Kenya Sugar (Rai’s company) had entered the case as an appeal participant and subsequently withdrew from it.
4. Civil application (E187 of 2023)
- Civil Application No. E187 of 2023, filed by Sarbjit Rai, Rakesh Kumar and Stephen Kihumba (linked to Sarrai Group), where West Kenya Sugar was named as a respondent.
- Rai’s team filed notice to withdraw from this application.
Vartox Resources Inc. (a Dubai-registered firm associated with the dispute) also withdrew its separate appeals related to the Mumias Sugar lease around the same time.
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