President Uhuru Kenyatta’s personal assistant Jomo Gecaga and former Nairobi Governor Evans Kidero are embroiled in a Sh950,000 rent row.
Gecaga, through a company called JSTA Limited, has now rushed to court seeking to stop GemInvest Limited from evicting him from an apartment on Riverside Drive, Nairobi, over rent arrears. A two-year tenancy agreement between the two was entered into on March 28, 2014, and has now expired.
Through lawyer Anthony Gikaria, JSTA says the outbreak of Covid-19 undermined its ability to meet its monthly rent obligations.
Gikaria says this was worsened by the imposition of tough containment strategies by the international community and the government that hurt local and global trade.
JSTA says unless the court intervenes, it will be greatly prejudiced, not to mention the embarrassment that would be caused if GEMInvest instructs auctioneers to levy distress and attempt to evict Gecaga.
It has asked the court to restrain GEM from harassing, illegally evicting the tenant, or interfering with the tenancy agreement.
“We had indicated our commitment going forward to at least pay on a monthly basis Sh250,000 commencing September to December while awaiting the resumption of normalcy,” says JSTA.
The court papers indicate GEM issued JSTA with a tenancy termination notice on September 17. The notice indicated that JSTA should clear outstanding rentals of Sh950,000, renovate the apartment and vacate the house by September 30.
GEMInvest threatened court action if the two conditions were not met.
But JSTA says GEM’s decision to terminate its tenancy agreement was rather harsh if not too drastic a measure that fails to take into consideration the economic crisis brought about by Covid.
Milimani principal magistrate A. Makau certified the case as urgent and directed the matter be heard tomorrow.
The letter signed by Sellesa Adhiambo, the projects assistant at GemInvest Ltd, indicated that Jomo refused to pay Sh400,000 as rent security deposit and sign a new lease agreement after the earlier one expired.
The letter indicates that the apartment House No. 2C on Riverside Drive is occupied by Gecaga. It is copied to Susan Mboya-Kidero, wife of the former Nairobi county chief.
“We hereby request that you vacate the premises not later than 30 September due to inability to fulfil payment of rental obligation as was agreed on following your request on rent reduction, and to date, you have an outstanding balance of Sh950,000,” the letter reads.
“We pray for your cooperation to avoid potential litigation at your cost,” the letter.
However, JSTA says during the existence of its tenancy agreement, the tenant and landlord enjoyed cordial tenancy relationship and honoured all its contractual obligations, including paying rent on time.