A Nairobi Commercial Court has temporarily restrained JIANGXI water and hydropower construction Kenya Limited or any person on their behalf from proceeding with the construction of the Strom Water Drainage in Thika pending the hearing and determination of a suit filed by Manoro Ventures.
Justice Francis Tuiyot issued the injunction which shall last for seven days effective from 2nd August 2018 to enable the parties carry out separate measures of work done by Manoro.
Through lawyer John Ogada, the contractor filed a suit against JIANGXI after they removed them from the site and failed to pay them for work already completed and hired new contractors to carry out the job.
In a supporting affidavit by Manoro Ventures Limited Director John Karagu, the court heard that they were hired in a subcontract basis to construct Storm Water Drainage for Thika CBD and West CBD for a sum of approximately Sh 46 million.
”The plaintiff has been working on the project for over 10 months and has spent vast amount of money time and labour and was on the course to complete when the defendant arbitrarily, without notice, good cause and in breach of the agreement ordered them from the site and brought someone else to do the job,” reads the affidavit.
It is alleged that the Chinese company has refused, declined and failed to pay Manoro a substantial amount of money for the work already completed, for their material on site and breach of contract.
The company is alleged to have put a new subcontractor on the site who has embarked on destroying some of the work Manora has already done with a view to concealing and obfuscating the work so that they will not be able to prove some of the work already done.
The court heard that if JIANGXI is allowed to continue with the work on site before the determination of the issues, much of the evidence will be damaged to an extent that the plaintiff will not be able to show much of his work.
According to court documents, failure to pay the plaintiff has affected his ability to pay his workers, engineer and laborers as well as suppliers.
The payment was to be done in instalments, each payment being made within 14 days after raising of Interim Payment Claim (IPC), monthly progress inspection and approval.
The existence of the subcontract between Manoro and JUANGXI is shown by one of the cheques paid annexed in the affidavit by Karagu.
The week before the defendant terminated the contract and removed the plaintiff from the site, JUANGXI had approved vide IPC No 5 that the work already completed as at 13th April 2018 was valued at Sh 30 million but has since failed to pay.
