A Mombasa-based company, Fallbrook Investments, has been evicted from its warehouse in Changamwe over rental arrears of about Sh7 million owed to Kenya Railways Corporation.
Fallbrook Investments had purchased the premises from Cassman Brown Kenya Limited through a transfer charge from Kenya Commercial Bank, according to the company's administrator Mohammed Kassim.
However, ground rent was payable to KRC because the premises belongs to the parastatal and had only been leased out.
The company has been manufacturing cabro paving blocks and other construction materials from the premises since 2001.
However, since 2016, the company has been undergoing turbulent times and was not operating optimally, forcing the owners to accrue rental arrears of up to five years, Kassim said.
In 2021, Fallbrook Investments moved to court seeking orders to stop KRC from evicting them from the Changamwe property.
A court order dated October 15, 2021, restrained KRC, and Kinyua and Co. Auctioneers from levying distress, attaching, selling, auctioning, disposing or interfering in any manner prejudicial to the proprietary interest of the plaintiff’s property in Changamwe LR N 9695/1.
This was in furtherance to the distress for rent levied by KRC pending the hearing and determination of this matter inter partes, the court order read.
However, Kassim said despite the court order being in place, KRC and auctioneers on February 2 this year stormed the premises and evicted them, without supporting court documents.
“They broke the padlocks and gained entry, saying that the property is now under KRC. We saw forklifts and trucks coming in and they carted away our belongings, including some raw materials,” he said.
“We are not being allowed to access the premises. We understand the auctioneers are taking away our things, but we can always arrange and sit down to agree on making payments slowly.”
Ali Omar, a security guard at the company, said they sometimes go for months without salary.
He said he has been working with the company for more than eight years.
“I was at the gate when they came in and evicted us, saying that we owe them millions of shillings and the lease has expired. However, I do wish to request the two parties to sit down and resolve the matter amicably because most of us will be affected,” Omar said.
According to the company’s legal representative Ashford Muriuki, they still have a case pending in court over disputed ground rent payable to KRC.
“We are shocked and surprised that Kenya Railways has raided the property and are carrying out an illegal eviction, carting away our client's assets and blocking access to the property," Muriuki said.
He said the firm's assets amount to more than Sh200 million.
However, a senior Kenya Railways official told the Star on Monday they had an agreement with Cassman Brown Kenya ltd and not Fallbrook Investments.
"We wanted to evict them [Cassman Brown] but they took us to court. The matter went on and was dismissed with costs. So, we only did what was right. We only know of Cassman Brown, and we do not know any other tenant," the officer, who did not want to be named, said.