Kisii High Court judge Crispin Nangila has ordered the embattled directors of the Ibacho Trading Company to hold elections within thirty days.
In addition, they are to hold an annual general meeting to discuss outstanding issues among shareholders and publish its audited accounts in the next two days.
Delivering the decision, he declined to grant one of the prayers of a faction in the company that had sued the incumbent directors, asking the court to declare their tenure in office null and void.
The ruling comes in the wake of a suit filed by a rival faction led by William Onsongo Mayaka and Samuel Monda Ondora, challenging the validity of the directorship of the current office-bearers.
The two who spoke after the court proceedings accused the incumbent directors of having irregularly borrowed loans amounting to 2.4 million Kenya shillings, excluding the rest of the shareholders from the affairs of the company and arbitrarily making decisions without the members' consent or knowledge.
In separate statements, the two also accused the current group of directors of having purchased a plot of land which they had purported to develop, but on visiting the said piece of land to ascertain the extent of developments taking place there, they were surprised to find steel rods stuck in the ground with no sign of any other construction or development whatsoever.
The troubled Ibacho Trading Company was formed in 1969 and has a total of 1,372 shareholders, with interests in property and landholding within Kisii County like the famous Blue Inn building in Kisii, a total of 36 housing units.
It has since seen three changes to the directorship, with the current group having assumed office in 2007 in an interim capacity.
The embattled current directors did not attend the court session and calls were unanswered.
The next hearing date has been set for the March 19, 2015.