A Nairobi-based company has sued the government and Equity Group Foundation for breaching a Sh35 million contract for the supply of Personal Protective Equipment.
Real Estate Time Company Limited was in June awarded a contract to deliver 54,000 respiratory masks to designated Covid-19 Emergency Response Fund Board warehouse located at Enterprise Road.
One unit was to cost Sh625 and payment was to be done within 30 days of delivery.
The company through lawyer Eve Akello says it sought short-term financing of the procurement of the PPE and went on to acquire the products from sources abroad.
“Following a sad turn of events with the shipment of the PPE, Equity and Kenya Covid-19 Fund Board purported to cancel the contract in a manner that was not in line with the executed agreement,” Akello said.
The company says the cancellation led to the masks being detained at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
"The PPE are wasting at JKIA and I am incurring charges for storage since the government has declined to pay," the company says.
It asked the court to issue an injunction compelling the government and Equity Group to take the already procured PPE pending hearing and determination of the case.
According to court documents, some of the company’s creditors have embarked on criminal action against Real Estate and its directors seeking to have them convicted for obtaining money by false pretenses.
In an affidavit, Lillian Awuor says some of the creditors have equally embarked on a social media war and defamation of the company in a bid to attempt to get their money back.
“I have been termed a con-woman and a deceptive human being who has refused to pay the loans advanced to my company. This is happening despite trying to explain to the creditors and their advocates that I have filed a suit against the respondents in a bid to recover the money,” Awuor said.
Awuor said one of the people she obtained money from has since preferred criminal charges against the signatories to the contract.
The charges have been challenged at the High Court where the matter is pending.