SA firm gets nod to buy stake in Naivas

South African retail chain MassMart can buy a majority stake in Kenya’s Naivas Supermarket, the High Court ruled Wednesday.

Mr Justice Anyara Emukule said courts must never block investments as they were good for the economy.

“If the transaction between Naivas directors and the foreigners exists, let it go on to fruition,” he told Mr Newton Mukuha Kagira, who wanted the sale blocked because he said it would disinherit him. MassMart wants to buy a 51 per cent stake.

His lawyer, Mr Evans Ondieki, yesterday urged the court to put on hold the sale until a case in which Mr Kagira claims to have been disinherited by his four siblings was heard and determined.

He said his client was ready to settle out of court if Naivas paid him between Sh200 million and Sh250 million.

But Mr Francis Mwangi, for Naivas and its chairman Simon Gachwe, said Naivas was a private company, whose directors are Mr Gachwe and Mr Kimani Mukuha, while sisters Grace and Linet are top managers.

He added: “Kagira is not a shareholder of Naivas and has never been. His father’s property was subdivided a long time ago and the other siblings united to form Naivas.”

The founder of Naivas, Mr Peter Mukuha Kago, died on May 6, 2010 aged 93. Mr Gachwe sought to be the administrator of his father’s multi-million-shilling fortune.

Mr Kagira, who is one of Mr Kago’s sons, said he had been excluded in order to disinherit him.

Mr Gachwe enclosed a will written by their father showing how his property should be shared but Mr Kagira contested it, saying he had been excluded.

Mr Gachwe said Mr Kagira had violated Kikuyu customs where as a “muramati” (custodian), he was required to preserve his father’s estate and share it with his siblings.

The inheritance case was deferred to November 11.