Court declines to stop auction of Moses Kuria land over Sh50m bank loan

The High Court has declined an application by former Trade CS Moses Kuria to halt the auctioning of his two parcels of land to repay Sh54 million owed to a commercial bank.

Kuria, now one of President William Ruto’s senior economic advisers, took a loan of Sh50 million from Equity Bank in 2018. The cash was to be used to put up a storey building for rentals.

The first installment of Sh10m was disbursed to Kuria in May 2018.

The bank has now moved to auction two parcels of land in Kiambaa and Juja, which were used as collateral for the loan.

Kuria had rushed to court seeking orders to stop the planned auction. The action was scheduled to be conducted by Garam Auctioneers on Tuesday, April 8.

Justice Aleem Visram on Monday ruled that the court could not stop the auction because Kuria had failed to meet the threshold for the grant of such orders.

“Further, it is evident that all efforts to renegotiate the terms of repayment and handle the matter in an amicable manner had failed,” Justice Visram said, adding there was no valid ground to restrain the bank from exercising its statutory power of sale.

Kuria had told the court that the bank had only disbursed Sh40 million to him and not the whole amount of Sh50 million which he had asked for.

As such, he had to look for an alternative source of funding to put up the project.

It was also Kuria’s submission that the Covid-19 pandemic caused disruptions in all sectors of the economy thus the project had stalled.

He argued that the pandemic caused a surge in the price of building materials

Kuria also told the court that he was sick and hospitalized for a long period of time and thus could not undertake the project.

Documents filed in court showed that Kuria had stopped servicing the loan as of June 2022.

The amount owed had risen to Sh54 million as of 2024 including interests.

The former Gatundu South MP, however, said he had repaid Sh5.7 million and that there was goodwill on his part to service the debt.

Justice Visram, however, noted that the amount repaid was much less than what Kuria ought to have repaid based on their agreements.

“I am satisfied, in light of the above, that all relevant statutory notices were duly served on the applicant and that the bank’s statutory powers of sale have crystallized in accordance with the law,” the court ruled