Kenyan tycoon Jimmy Wanjigi has filed an appeal at the High Court contesting a court order requiring him to settle a debt of Sh1.37 million to a luxury clothing store.
The retail store, Fazal The Luxury Boutique, moved to court earlier this year accusing Wanjigi of failing to pay Sh1.37 million for clothes sold to him in 2019.
Fazal, whose parent company is Ravello Limited, claimed it supplied the billionaire with five pairs of Ermenegildo Zegna trousers and two Brioni jackets.
The designer trousers were going for USD 675 each (Sh72,000) while the blazers tailored for royalty and presidents cost USD 2,812 each( Sh303,000).
Fazal further claimed that Wanjigi owed Sh67,500 for another Zegna pair of trousers that he claimed couldn’t fit him. The businessman was supposed to return the pair but never did, Ravello claimed.
In total, the presidential aspirant allegedly owes Fazal Sh1,038,000.
The store told the court that Wanjigi began playing cat and mouse with the company after receiving the clothes.
When contacted, Wanjigi would often claim to be out of the country or away from his office. He would also pledge to pay but he never did, Ravello further alleged.
“The plaintiff further avers that subsequently, Wanjigi became evasive, failed to pick up telephone calls from them but instead increasingly gave them unfulfilled promised through Whats App that he could settle the account sums herein on time which promises he has failed and refused to fulfil to date,” reads court papers.
In a ruling on January 22, 2021, Milimani Principal Magistrate D.M. Kivuti ordered Wanjigi to settle the debt.
The famous wheeler-dealer didn’t, forcing Ravello to file an application to auction his items over the debt.
Jimmy Wanjigi is now accusing Principal magistrate Kivuti of bias in favour of the store during the course of the hearing of the case.
“The court erred in law by basing his orders on inadmissible evidence and unauthenticated documents in the form of Whats App text messages,” he said.
Wanjigi also claims that the trial magistrate erred in law by failing to hold that the suit before him was an incompetent, frivolous, vexatious and total abuse of the court process.
The businessman maintains that he does not owe Ravello the amount, and that boutique’s allegations are baseless and are meant to harass and taint his “good image”.
He wants the high court to set aside the order that directed him to pay over Sh1 million to Ravello Limited.
“The defendant avers that he does not owe the store the alleged USD 10,35o or any money at all and the alleged claim has no legal or factual bias and the same is baseless, frivolous, mischievous and meant to extort money from him,” Wanjigi argued.
