A company associated with slain billionaire businessman Jacob Juma will have to pay government Sh326 million afurt losing a case in which its mining license was revoked, reports the Standard.
Cortec Mining, which had sued the Government alongside Stirling Mining Ltd (SML), suffered a major setback in a Sh2 trillion claim against the Government after the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes dismissed the case on grounds it was not legitimate.
Through his company, in collaboration with a Canadian Firm, Juma had his campany licensed for mining activities in Kwale, during the transition period between President Uhuru Kenyatta and his predecessor Mwai Kibaki in 2013.
The tribunal run by the World Bank ruled the firm had not presented a case to allow it to bill the Government for cancelling its mineral exploration licence.
“Because Moses Masibo purported to exercise a discretion he did not have and ignored statutory requirements, the tribunal concludes that the Government has demonstrated SML is not a protected investment,” it ruled.
Mr. Masibo, the then commissioner for mines, issued Cortec with the licence when only the minister had such powers.
The State was represented by Iseme, Makema & Kamau advocates, DLA Piper LLP, London and then Attorney General Githu Mugai's law office.
The billionaire tendeprenuer's company will now have to part with Sh326 million as legal fee after failing to successfully challenge government following cancellation of their license.
Had the government lost, the company fhave been the only with exclusive rights to mine minerals in Kwale County worth Sh6 trillion for 21 years.
During the infantry stages of Uhuru's government, Najib Balala, the then mining minister, is said to have asked the company to paid Sh80 million or have the license cancelled.
Juma, who later on turned a fierce critic of government, was gunned down by unknown people in Nairobi, May 2016. His killers are yet to be brought to book.