JamboPay received reprieve when the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) nullified the case against former NHIF CEO Geoffrey Mwangi
But in the same morning, a Nairobi Court allowed Equity Bank to auction JamboPay’s land worth Sh139 million.
In the beginning of the Sh1.1 billion corruption case at NHIF, the DPP has turned Webstribe’s CEO Danson Muchemi into a state witness against NHIF officials namely Geoffrey Mwangi, Simeon Kirgotty, Mudzo Nzili, Yussuf Ibrahim and Elly Nyaim.
Webtribe is the company that owns the payment solutions firm JamboPay.
Mr Mwangi was accused of colluding with JamboPay to loot NHIF, but after a year, the DPP dropped the case against JamboPay’s Danson Muchemi and turned him a state witness against NHIF officials.
JamboPay had won the contract to handle payments for the state agency.
The company was tapped to install an internally managed system which would have cost between Sh400 million and Sh600 million, the contract it signed was for offering a payment solution to NHIF at a fee of between four and 4.5 per cent of collections.
It is a reprieve for Danson Muchemi that the case in which he was a witness has ended but in the same day Equity Bank was allowed to auction his company’s land worth Sh139 million.
Justice Oguttu Mboya said JampoPay’s “case was not only misconceived but equally devoid of merits” since the bank had informed the company about the intended sale of the suit property as envisaged in the Land Act.
“It is my finding and holding that JampoPay and her directors were variously and duly served with the requisite statutory notices by and on behalf of Equity Bank.
“I also find and hold that having been duly served with the requisite statutory notices, JampoPay cannot now feign ignorance and contend that same was never served with requisite notices,” said Justice Mboya when dismissing the suit filed last February.
Equity Bank told the court that at the time of filing its written submissions in court in December 2022, the outstanding amount was in the sum of Sh139,156,723.
The bank stated that the suit property was charged as security in September 2016.
“By charging the suit property to and in favour of the bank, JampoPay acknowledged that the suit property became a commodity for sale and therefore available for sale and disposal, subject to compliance with the requisite provisions of the law,” said Equity.
Purple Royal Auctioneers will oversee the auction
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