The Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) has sued Weston Hotel over an unpaid loan.
The bank is demanding Sh1 billion from the hotel as loan it lent to the hotel owner while in the process of buying the contested 1.77 acre piece of land.
Consequently, the bank will now be involved in a Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) case, where the authority is seeking to recover the land, after winning round one of the court fight.
The bank said it gave Sh350 million to the hotel on October 2014, another Sh150 million and Sh700 million on July 8, 2015, where the land was used as security.
"By the virtue of the registered charge and further charge, the applicant has extended banking facilities to the second respondent amounting to Sh1.5 billion and $1.5 million (Sh150 million),” reads court papers filed by lawyer Emmanuel Wetang'ula, the bank's legal representative.
The bank claimed that at the time of the loan issuance, the land had been cleared by the Registrar of Lands, which made it believe that it was rightfully owned by Weston.
However, its bid to join KCAA in the suit was not challenged by Weston.
The hotel lawyer Ahmednassir Abdullahi has urged Chief Justice David Maraga to appoint a 3-judge bench to hear the KCAA case, arguing that the case is too much for a single judge.
“This matter should be addressed with the seriousness it deserves by a panel of three judges,” he said.