Munga turns to wife to avoid auctioneers over multi-million ABC Bank loan

Businessman Peter Munga has managed to stall a looming auction of his Britam shares valued at over half a billion shillings over a defaulted ABC Bank loan. This is after the businessman’s wife successfully asked the court to stop the auctioning of the 75 million shares claiming that they part of matrimonial property.

Rose Njeri, who is the wife of Peter Munga, told the High Court that since the shares were part of matrimonial property, they could not be disposed of without her consent. After her petition, the High Court ruled that she had an arguable case that her husband had pledged the shares to secure loans without consulting her.

The High Court then blocked ABC Bank from auctioning the shares until Njeri’s case is heard and determined.

Munga and Njeri’s tactic follows in the footsteps of a similar tactic that has been deployed by former cabinet secretary Moses Kuria and his wife Joyce Njambi Gathungu. Kuria had also turned to his wife in April this year to block the auctioning of his property by Equity Bank over a Sh54.3 million defaulted loan.

In that petition, Kuria’s wife had claimed that the property that was up for auctioning in Ruaka and Juja which she valued at Sh100 million is matrimonial property.

In April this year, Munga had lost his bid to block auctioneers from selling off his multimillion shares over a Sh433.76 million ABC Bank loan. This was after the High Court dismissed the businessman and lashed at him for filing multiple applications in various courts in hope that one of the courts would issue orders favourable to him.

Munga had filed a fresh case at the High Court following another ruling by High Court judge Alfred Mabeya. That ruling had given ABC the green light to auction 75 million shares that he holds at Britam Kenya over the debt that he had guaranteed one of his companies.

Justice Mabeya had ruled that the loan taken by Munga’s company remains in default and as such there is no reason why ABC Bank should not attach the shares.

“In the absence of such payment, the court finds that the prayer for a permanent injunction [by Munga] preventing the first defendant [ABC Bank] and ABC Capital from realizing the security [of 75 million shares] is untenable and is disallowed,” Justice Mabeya had ruled.

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