MOMBASA: A foreign investor was on Sunday evening counting losses after part of her hotel was brought down and foreign tourists thrown out into the cold.
The Galu Kinondo 48 hotel belonging to a Polish investor which was opened one and a half years ago has been entangled in a legal dispute with a media tycoon at the Malindi court of appeal.
It is unclear who sent bulldozers to demolish the structure but under police supervision. The hotel stands on a 2 acre plot on the Kenyan South Coast. The Pole alleges the demolition was done against a court order.
"We only saw bulldozers coming and demolished the wall surrounding the hotel before bringing down some parts of the hotel," said Ms. Jenni Pierce, a tourist who was inside in some of the building.
The director of the Hotel Iwona Strerzelecka said she came to Kenya to invest three years ago and is devastated by the turn of events.
"I came here three years ago and I constructed this property after selling everything in my home country," she said.
The Director further claimed that the police threatened her after asking everyone on the property to leave adding that the hotel employed 70 people who have now lost their jobs.
"We had 6 foreign guests who have been affected by the demolition and 8 others had booked but they canceled after the incident," she added.
Yesterday her lawyer Lilian Oluoch who condemned the incident said there is a dispute between Estates Sonrisa and the tycoon.
"The plaintiff in the case breached a court order restraining them from demolishing the property whose case was supposed to be heard at the appeal court in Malindi on today," explained the lawyer.
She said the issue before the appeal court is a dispute over the boundary between two properties. And she accused the demolition squad of trespass.
"The court order had directed the registrar and land surveyors in the area to establish if any of the parties have encroached [on each other's plot] or not," added the lawyer.
She said the parties were to determine this in 60 days.
Also demolished was part of Ali Khan Ali building.
Kwale county commissioner Evans Achoki said he was going to find out what had happened but Msambweni DC Mwangangi Mwania told The Standard there was a court order allowing the demolition.
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He claimed "police had confirmed to me that the house was on someone else's land."
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