Judge pulls out of Ruto, coffee firm licence row

By Evelyn Kwamboka and Nancy Akinyi

A judge has disqualified herself from hearing a case in which Agriculture Minister William Ruto has been sued for issuing a licence to a coffee miller.

Lady Justice Jeanne Gacheche yesterday said she would not handle the case. The file will now be placed before Lady Justice Roselyne Wendoh for further directions on November 16.

In the case, Ruto and the Coffee Board of Kenya are sued following their decision to allegedly licence Central Kenya Coffee Mills Ltd in place of Mathira Coffee Millers Ltd, a company representing over 26,000 peasant farmers in Karatina and Konyu.

Mathira Coffee Millers want the minister’s decision quashed and the licence issued to it instead of its rival miller.

In September, High Court judge Justice David Onyancha temporarily stopped Ruto from gazetting a licence to Central Kenya Coffee Mills Ltd, pending hearing and determination of the case.

jeopardise processing

He issued the interim order after Mathira Coffee Millers’ advocate Veronica Maina informed the court that the board refused to renew the company’s licence or even issue it with an application for renewal document.

Ms Maina said the denial to issue the licence would jeopardise the processing of the coffee crop whose season is about to mature.

"It will highly jeopardise the affairs, assets and applicant’s stake in the coffee milling licence and its ownership and the affairs of the said mills," Maina said.

The miller has also named the Agriculture ministry as a respondent.

And Kenya Planters Co-operative Union (KPCU) will face its former Managing Director Henry Kinyua in Sh109 million-pension dispute.

Mr Kinyua sued his former employer for failing to pay him his terminal benefits amounting to Sh109,884,500.

Commercial Court judge Joyce Khaminwa dismissed a preliminary objection by KPCU that sought to refer the matter to the Industrial Court Tribunal.

KPCU argued that following the enactment and commencement of Employment Act 2007, the claim ought to be referred to an Industrial Court Tribunal.

But the judge said the issue in dispute was non-payment of pension and other benefits and not amendment to the Employment Act.

She maintained that the court was rightly placed to hear the dispute to the end adding that the suit in question was brought to court several years before the said Act was amended. The judge said amendment of the said Act was not intended to interfere with on going proceedings.

"Parliament did not intend that new statutes on labour matters operate retrospectively to affect ongoing proceedings," the judge ruled.

She fixed inter parties hearing for November 19.

 

 

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