The Brookside Dairy Limited has paid Nyali MP Mohammed Ali Sh500,000 after the legislator unveiled plans to seize their cows and other assets.
Ali was granted permission to auction Brookside’s assets by the High Court over Sh502,501 debt arising from costs awarded to him by the court in November 2022 after he won a defamation suit filed against him by the milk processing company.
Among the items that were to be auctioned are 40 dairy cows worth Sh150,000 each, a cooling plant valued at Sh400,000 in Gatundu South, and printers worth Sh14,000.
“As a matter of abundant caution, and in the event the ex-part order are not granted we hereby enclose our cheque in the sum of Sh579,126 towards the payment of the figure stated in the said proclamation,” Brookside said in a letter to Ali’s lawyer Adrian Kamotho as quoted by The Standard.
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“This payment is made without prejudice to the said application and in any event without admission of the validity of the said proclamation.”
Brookside, which is associated with former President Uhuru Kenyatta, sued Ali in July 2022, claiming he incited the public to cause economic and commercial harm to its business.
They claimed that Ali allegedly told a political rally in Nyeri County on March 3, 2022, that Brookside buys milk from farmers at Sh20, boils, and thereafter sells it to suppliers at Sh120, a statement they say was false.
The suit was, however, struck out in October 2022 by Justice Hedwig Ong’undi after the court found that the claim was filed in the wrong forum – Constitutional and Human Rights Division.
