AG wades in on Malindi hotel ownership tussle

By ISAIAH LUCHELI

The Attorney General Githu Muigai now wants the court to lift orders allowing a German couple to take over a Sh700 million tourist beach hotel in Watamu.

Representing him, Assistant Registrar of Companies, Ms Alice Mwendwa, said the January 21, 2010 order deprives Isaac Rodrot of his investment as enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution.

Property protection

"The State has a duty to protect a person’s property and interest in land, or title to land in accordance with chapter four of the Constitution," she stated in her affidavit.

Responding to a judicial review and land division petition filed by Rodrot, Mwendwa said it was a clear violation of the investor’s fundamental rights to have been deprived of his shares in Salama Beach Hotel Ltd.

She said a judgement from the Court of Milan which gave the German couple ownership of the property was registered in the country in contravention of the Foreign Judgements Act.

Mwendwa said the judgement deprived Rodrot of his property rights – it changed shareholding of a company in contravention of the Companies Act and the constitution.

Mwendwa said the couple, Hans Juergen Langer and his wife Zahra, having stated they were not served with the decree that led to the changes, the court should proceed to set it aside as it would offend the direct provision of the Foreign Judgments Act.

"The enforcement of the orders from the Court of Milan would be manifestly contrary to public policy in Kenya and should be set aside," she added.

The assistant registrar said she perused the file relating to the hotel and found Rodrot was the sole agent of Ventaglio when the decree was extracted. She said in June 2010, the hotel filed minutes and resolutions with the registrar, providing for the retirement and payment mode of 40,000 shares that were held by the investor.

Investors’s lawyer

The registrar withheld effecting the changes after receiving a letter from the investor’s lawyer objecting to the transfer of shares before their client received payment.

In January 2010, consent was recorded before Justice Mohammed Ibrahim, whereupon the registrar was mandated to transfer all the shares held to the couple.

Aggrieved by the decision, Rodrot moved to court to have his property back on grounds the couple, their company Accredo AG and hotel manager, Stefano Ucceli, misled the court and took over the hotel in the North Coast.

He wants the Constitutional Court to invoke the Bill of Rights and issue orders to prevent the couple and their company and associates from selling the hotel, charging its assets to a financial institution, transferring their shareholding or vandalising its assets.

He also wants the court to order the Registrar of Companies to delete all entries in the file of Salama Beach Hotel Ltd and restore original shareholders as well as an order allowing repossession of the hotel from the couple and their company.

In the alternative, he is seeking that the couple and Accredo AG be ordered to deposit Sh700 million with the court to secure the interest of the earlier owners and the hotel be placed under joint receivership pending the determination of the complex web of court tussles over its ownership.