City Tycoon Mike Maina Kamau has suffered a blow after a Nairobi Court slapped him with costs for seeking adjournment of a defamation case.
Maina had sought adjournment in a case where he has sued former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko accusing him of interfering with his repossession of the 20-acre plot in Nairobi’s Kayole Estate despite a valid eviction order in 2019.
Sonko was ready to defend himself in the matter but he did not do so because Maina informed the court that his lawyer was not present in court.
The matter was before judge Lucy Mbugua who adjourned the case.
Mr Kamau, the owner of Marble Arch Hotel, accuses Mr Sonko of releasing a recording of their phone conversation in which he insulted the businessman, initiating social media attacks that he claims damaged his reputation and image.
He claims that Sonko called the businessman and in a leaked private conversation threatened to demolish part of his hotel, which he said is built on grabbed land.
According to the city businessman, the phone call recording, which was widely circulated, and the Facebook post, were meant to depict him as someone who is violent and corrupt.
Sonko through his lawyer Harrison Kinyanjui wants the court to dismiss that application saying that Maina does not have any evidence to defend his claims.
He adds that Main has failed to exhaust other dispute resolutions mechanisms sated under the law.
“This petition is incompetent and the court should not entertain it, “said Sonko in his response.
He adds that Nairobi City County Is the owner of the disputed land and it allocated the said land to the people of Nairobi who are residing there.
According to Sonko, at the material time he was the Governor of the Nairobi City County Government, he did establish that the purported “Consent” in HCC 457 of 1999 pleaded by the Petition as allegedly having been between Kamau and the Nairobi City Council was never authorized, or permissible in the circumstances.
Sonko says that his witness S.G maina, Chief Officer in charge of lands in the Nairobi City Government will explain much about it.
