Judge Alfred Mabeya. FILE PHOTO | NMG
The High Court has dismissed an application by former directors of the collapsed Imperial Bank seeking to summon Central Bank of Kenya bosses including chairman Mohamed Nyaoga and governor Patrick Njoroge over the decision to place the lender under receivership in 2015.
Justice Alfred Mabeya dismissed the application stating that summoning the duo plus Deputy Governor Sheila M’Mbijjiwe would not assist the court in solving the case.
The judge added that CBK was not a party in the case he was handling and no specific claims were being sought against the regulator.
“…my view is that to summon the intended witnesses will not further the cause of justice. It will not assist the court in arriving at a just decision,” said Justice Mabeya.
According to the judge, the placement of IBL under receivership was not an issue before him and the process has already been dealt with, in another case.
“The finding thus is that the evidence to be tendered by the intended witnesses is not relevant in this suit to warrant the issuance of witness summons as prayed for,” he said.
Former executives of the collapsed bank have accused Ms M’Mbijjiwe of illegally sanctioning the closure of the bank while Dr Njoroge and then Treasury CS Henry Rotich were out of the country.
They have argued that the decision to place the lender under statutory management was unlawful.
Mr Salim Janmohamed said in the application that the evidence of the CBK officials was crucial in shedding light on the process leading to the placement of the bank under statutory management.
The former directors claim that the lender was solid with a healthy loan book and no history of financial crisis, but the regulator chose to place it under receivership for extraneous reasons.
“We should be told who closed the bank, how many directors were in office on the material day and whether the chairman called a board meeting, deliberated on the issues and passed a resolution calling for placing of the bank under statutory management,” he said.
The lender was placed under receivership on October 13, 2015, after CBK and a forensic audit tabled before the High Court in an ongoing civil case, stated that the fraud was committed by senior officials of the bank..
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