Last week on Wednesday, Mr. Kenneth Wamae, a member of the Impala Club in Nairobi was charged in court, for allegedly sending email messages to Impala Club members to the effect that Impala Club chairman Dr. Tonny Monda was mismanaging the club affairs.
Well, it is now emerging that the bad blood arising from the case is as a result of the controversial leasing of Impala Club’s Pool Bar located along Ngong’ Road to a Brazilian restaurant by the name Al Pasha at Sh. 50,000 per month by three of the club 8 management committee members!
After the new team was elected, Impala Club offered a new newsletter which offered details on the club’s work plan for the coming year. According to the Newsletter, the club would seek to build a family friendly boutique hotel, and a coffee and wine shop. The newsletter explained that the club’s pool bar would be turned into a Java-style coffee shop.
“We are at an advanced stage in changing the current Pool Bar into a Java-style coffee shop,” it said. Apparently, the renovation was to be carried out on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), with the successful partner in the project being required to renovate and outfit the pool bar and the swimming pool area into a family friendly zone with an increased children’s play area.
A few months down the line, the dance suddenly changed. On October 15 last year, Impala Club members received a second email claiming that The Al Pasha Group had been selected as a renovation partner. On October 23, Impala Club held a meeting, during which it was agreed that a Special General Meeting would be held where full disclosure on the pool bar project would be given and discussed.
Mr. Wamae denied the charge and was released on a cash bail of Sh. 10,000. The hearing of the case will be on May 4 2015. According to a letter allegedly signed by the club chairman, Mr. Monda, construction work at the pool bar is said to have started and was to be completed in the next four weeks. However, according to Mr. Wamae, the SGM which had been promised was yet to be held, despite the on-going constructions, which the club members were not privy to.
Consequently, on November 19, two members of the club sued the Management Committee for commencing with the projects dubbed Al Pasha Coffee Lounge and Bar at the Pool bar without the consent or knowledge of the club’s members.
“The suit dated 19 November was served to the management committee of the club, after which the contract between ‘Impala Club and Al Pasha was made accessible to club members through the office of the Club Manager,” says Mr. Wamae. The two contracts seen by Bizna, one is signed October 1 2014, while the other is undated. They were signed by the chairman of the club, and the two club secretaries.
In opposing the deal, the other 5 management committee members went to court complaining that they were not privy to the deal signed between Impala Club’s management and Al Pasha Group. They also complained that the three signatories did not follow due procedure as provided by the club constitution and therefore, the contracts could not legally bind the club. Apparently, the three signatories had leased out the Pool Bar for 8 years with a rent free period of 6 months for Ksh. 50,000 per month!
- To be continued tomorrow…
