Bankers say courts ruining sector

The Kenya Bankers Association (KBA) has complained about increased court injunctions against its members.

KBA CEO Habil Olaka (above) said the injunctions were hurting their business.

He said the trend had occasioned massive losses as clients were using such court decisions not to repay their loans.

Mr Olaka, who was addressing a judges conference at Whitesands hotel in Mombasa, suggested that courts should only extended such injunctions when there was concrete evidence that the bank was on the wrong.

“Such extensions have led to delays, leading to heightened costs and banks are unable to realise their security,” said Olaka.

Contractual obligation 

Olaka said in order to address such problems, the Judiciary should ensure contractual obligations between banks and their clients with disputes in court were enforced. He said there was also need to increase judicial officers to handle those cases, he said.

He however said alternative dispute resolution mechanisms were needed to speed up cases.

“We need to have alternative dispute resolutions or employ more judges and magistrates to handle these cases expeditiously so that banks do not suffer losses,” said Olaka.

"The Judiciary should develop a guide to help us deal with banking disputes," he added