Chinese Contractors In KSh 4 Billion Lake Basin Mall To Face Trial

A court has issued a fresh ruling in the KSh 4.1 billion Lake Basin Mall in Kisumu where two directors of a Chinese company were accused of increasing the cost of construction to defraud taxpayers.

The Appellate court declined to stop the trial of Zeyun Yang and Zhang Jing arguing that it failed to show how they will be prejudiced if the trial is not stopped.

Yang and Zhang are the directors of Erdemann Property Ltd.

The directors argued that the case was a commercial dispute which is supposed to be governed by an arbitration clause incase of a disagreement.

They also argued that the case was a punishment for pursuing payment of KSh 645 million, adding that it was meant to put them through unnecessary expenses and agony.

“We find that the applicants are simply jumping the gun, as other than mere speculation, they have not demonstrated any exceptional circumstances to justify interference with the criminal prosecution,” Justices Daniel Musinga, Hannah Okwengu and Jamila Mohammed ruled.

Following the ruling, the judges said that the two have an option of filing an appeal if they were not satisfied by the decision of the High Court.

The two directors were charged together with former Lake Basin Development Authority chairman Onyango Oloo, former LBDA managing director Peter Abok, and the authority’s board members.

They all denied charges of conspiracy to defraud.